Sangam is a platform and hub for established and emerging South Asian-Australian artists to learn, create and showcase their art alongside globally renowned artists from the South Asian Diaspora in venues of excellence. Based in Naarm/Melbourne on unceded land, Sangam acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land, the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples. Expanding the work Sangam started during the pandemic to forge strong relations between South Asian artists and leaders, this event is the result of a week long artist lab in Dandenong and Dancehouse to include dialogues, debates, labs and residencies which involved artists and leaders to strengthen their leadership skills, provide a community to share their ideas and engage in culturally safe, South Asian led practices. Supported by Dancehouse, Creative Victoria, and Insite Arts. Sangam is inspired, curated & directed by its Artistic Director Dr. Priya Srinivasan and Associate Directors Hari Sivanesan and Uthra Vijay.

Dr. Priya Srinivasan is a performer/choreographer/writer and Artistic Director of Sangam who lives and works in the lands of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people in Narrm/Melbourne. Sangam under her direction has grown from a humble beginning to a recognised platform for South Asian artistic excellence featuring over 300 artists and creatives. Her own practice is rooted in South Asian classical dance, prioritizing feminist decolonization processes, and making visible minority women’s histories. Her work has been presented internationally in major festivals and venues in USA, Europe, China, India and Australia. She has curated, choreographed and performed solo, duet, ensemble and large scale projects in partnership with Hermitage Museum Amsterdam, Berlin Wall Memorial, Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai, Dakshina Chitra and Spaces Chennai, Adishakti Puducherry, Highways Los Angeles, Bunjil Place, Artshouse, Dancehouse, Sydney Opera House, Australian Opera, The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. With a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, Priya is the author of the award winning book “Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labour.” She has also been a mentor in the ECP program at Dancehouse and was an advisor that worked towards equitable sectoral change through the dance festival “Frame.”

Raina Peterson (they/them) is a dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage who was born and raised on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people of regional Victoria. Raina creates moving experimental dance works that respect and challenge both traditional and contemporary dance. With a substantial body of new work including four full-length company productions, Raina‘s works draw on their training in classical Indian dance (Mohiniyattam) and are critically acclaimed for their subversive and visceral approach to exploring the diasporic experience, cultural identity, colonialism, gender diversity and sexuality. With dance partner Govind Pillai, their full-length works include In Plain Sanskrit (2015), Bent Bollywood (2018), Third Nature (2019), Kāla (2019), and dance film Drishti (Winner of two Melbourne Fringe Awards, 2020), and two solo works: Narasimha: ManLion (2022, winner of Melbourne Fringe Award for ‘Best dance and physical theatre’) and Mohini (upcoming, March 2023 at Arts House for Frame Festival).

Shyamla Eswaran (they/she) is an independent Movement Artist/Choreographer, Educator, Writer and Presenter who advocates for cross-cultural experiences and anti-discrimination through the arts. Shyamla works with children, refugees and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and is committed to supporting independent artists and making dance more diverse, accessible and inclusive. With a Master of International Human Rights Law & Policy and 30+ years dance experience, Shyamla founded BINDI BOSSES South Asian Fusion Arts company in 2019. In 2020 and 2021 the company presented at TEDxSydney (talk, performance and dance tutorials). Shyamla was awarded the 2020 Multicultural NSW Premier’s Harmony Medal (Arts & Culture) and is a mentor for the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation, former Board Director at Ausdance National, Co-Host of 2022 4ESYDNEY Hip Hop Conference and the Ambassador and Host of SSI’s New Beginnings Festival and Freedom Sessions (2019-2022).

Chidambaram R Suresh is a multi-faceted artist excelling as a Bharata Natyam dancer, choreographer, nattuvangam artist and teacher. He is the lead choreographer for Agal Dance Company. His style and approach in choreography involves innovation that explores new movement phrases utilising the traditional grammar and vocabulary of Bharatha natyam. His own dance training under renowned exponents of the art form in India has enabled him to be a qualified Bharathanatyam teacher, who holds a Diploma in Bharata Natyam and Diploma in Nattuvangam from Annamalai University, India. Suresh has been recognised for his innate sense of rhythm, and has composed jathis (rhythm syllables) and compositions for dance in rare & complex rhythm sequences. He recently published some of the jathis he has composed in the form of a book titled 108 Bharathanatyam Jathis, which received rave reviews from experts in the field. He was also bestowed the title of “Laya Gnaana Thilagam” by hereditary nattuvanar, Kuthalam M. Selvam in 2022. Suresh has been a dance practitioner and teacher for almost 17 years, and has developed his own teaching methodologies during this extensive time.

Monica Singh Sangwan is a visharad in Odissi dance from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi trained by the doyen of Odissi dance Smt Madhavi Mudgal for over 15 years, and has also trained extensively with the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. She started performing from the young age of 11 years and has dedicated her life to the art of Odissi dance through performance and Training. Having travelled widely for performance and workshops all over the world in her career spanning over 27 years. Monica now trains Australian students as a full-time teacher dedicated to creating world class performers of this dance. Monica is the artistic director for the Sohamasmi Centre of Performing Arts, which she started in 2003. Sohamasmi aims to promote Indian classical sacred art forms and values, and focuses on training students in Odissi dance.

Ramya Harishankar is an award-winning dancer/choreographer who has performed all over the world as a soloist and with her company, Arpana. Her 20 full length productions have raised nearly $15K for charities worldwide. She conducts workshops in N. America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. As a producer, she co-convened 3 seminars on Indian dance in California and has presented over 50 Indian dance soloists/companies to S California audiences. Besides receiving several awards, citations, and grants from state and national agencies, Harishankar was named a ‘distinguished citizen’ by the City of Irvine, recipient of the Helene Modjeska Cultural Legacy award from Arts OC and a 2-time National Endowment of the Arts Choreography fellow.
www.arpanadancecompany.org

Tara Rajkumar OAM has made distinguished contributions to Indian and cross-cultural performing arts in Australia, United Kingdom and India for over four decades. Tara was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (2009) for her services to performing arts as a teacher, choreographer and performer of classical Indian dance. She was included in the Inaugural Victorian Honour Roll of Women Shaping the Nation on the occasion of Australia’s Centenary of Federation (2001) for her contributions to Victoria and the Nation in Arts and Education. She is a recipient of Australia Council’s Choreographic Fellowship and Honorary Fellowships at Monash Asia Institute and the Department of Music at Monash University. Tara was the founder and Foundation Director of the first National Academy of Indian Dance in the UK in 1979 with British government support. The Akadémi, as it is now called, has completed over 44 years of seminal contributions to South Asian Dance in the UK.

Dylan Singh is a second-generation circus performer and Wiradjuri man from Albury NSW. Dylan hails from the circus school the flying fruit fly’s circus under the training of his mother, founding member of fruit flies Tanya Lester. Dylan has gone on to perform with some of Australia’s biggest circus companies such as circus oz, casus, company two, as well as being in green room award winning shows chasing smoke and Na Djinang’s show arterial. Dylan is a proud cultural man and follows in his father’s footsteps to learn traditional dance and culture to keep it alive and thriving to pass onto generations to come. Dylan has started a first nations multimedia arts company (the dreaming project) using all forms of art. Using a blend of dance, visual media such as projections and arts works to circus, poetry, and physical theatre to help young first nations arts tell their stories in a modern context. using dreaming stories as a backbone to help young artist tell their own style of dreaming through these mediums. Dylan’s hope is to use traditional cultural practices to inform those of new generations. To help new generations find their identity and pride within themselves and their culture and express this on stage.

Antony Hamilton is the Artistic Director and co-CEO of Chunky Move. He works with collaborators to experiment with materials and spaces, and uses choreography to occupy vivid imaginary worlds. Antony is preoccupied by the notion of an elemental, primordial body, situated in a construct of intersecting contemporary narratives, while being confronted by the dilemmas of an unknowable destiny. His award-winning creations involve a collaborative melding of movement, sound and visual design. His major works include the seminal Black Project 1 (2012), critically acclaimed MEETING (2015) and NYX for the 2015 Melbourne Festival. He has created numerous national and international commissions, including Keep Everything and I Like This for Chunky Move, Black Project 3 for The Lyon Opera Ballet (FR) and Sentinel for Skanes Dansteater (SE). Antony was the inaugural recipient of the Russell Page Fellowship in 2004, Tanja Liedtke Fellowship in 2009, a Creative Australia Fellowship in 2012 and Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in 2014. He was guest dance curator at The National Gallery of Victoria in 2013-14 and honorary Resident Director at Lucy Guerin Inc in 2014.