About the Performance
One of Matrusena's core objectives is to bring an appreciation for diverse aesthetics among all art lovers. To that end Matrusena's Interbeing 2025 features three art practitioners who have dedicated to their lives towards exploring different artistic movement idioms and narrative themes that leverage on what has been passed down in history with a contemporary sensibility.
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We are presenting Ashwini Srivatsan who has spent 25 years practicing the movement form known as 'Bharatanrityam', which was developed by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam. This has been developed using the textual references in the Natyasastra (200BC-200CE) in tandem with the sculptures in temples across South Asia. For the past five years Ashwini has been working with Dr. Piyal Bhattacharya on Marga Natya. Marga Natya takes as its departure point the research already done by Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam. It strives to reimagine and recreate art as it must have existed at the time of the Natyasastra. Marga Natya is anchored in finding the true essence of art and uses movement, singing, instrumentation, spoken poetry to give expression to that essence. Ashwini will be presenting 'Baanika' a solo presentation that draws on all these elements. She will also be training local Bay area students in a workshop on some facets of Marganatya and select students will be presented at the Festival too.
Dr. Maya Kulkarni is an award winning choreographer who is the creator of a unique movement style called 'Shilpanatanam'. She has been working with leading dance practitioners around the world to create fascinating choreographies with Shilpanatanam. Dr. Kulkarni's choice of narratives to portray is unique and draws from different cultures across the world. Her movement inspiration for Shilpanatanam is firmly rooted in the dramaturgical purpose in these narratives and she doesn't let any particular movement idiom constrain her. Dr. Kulkarni will also be training local Bay area students through a workshop in choreographies that she has specially prepared for Interbeing 2025. Select students from the workshop will be featured at Interbeing on December 7th.
The last part of the evening will be a dance presentation by Dr. Deepa Mahadevan. Deepa is a movement researcher who believes in the idea of 'Presencing' where different movement forms blend in her being to bring forth the desired vision. She will be presenting 'Mayyal' an argument for unbridled love that is not constraint by society or contracts. 'Mayyal' largely foregrounds a Bharatanatyam movement vocabulary but Deepa, as a movement researcher celebrates the dialogue and constant interaction in her mind of body of the different movement systems that she has been training in and they take shape in her creative expression and choreographies.
Please come watch these three artists who have collectively spent over 100 years cultivating their artistic expression at Interbeing 2025
About Matrusena
Matrusena is a non-hierarchical space that celebrates everyone as a unique node of knowledge and learning. The seed of Matrusena has been germinating and finding roots for over several years. We have offered critical history courses for dancers since 2020. We are currently running our 6th 10-week critical theory course for dance practitioners from all over the world.
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Matrusena believes in working alongside tradition while challenging the status quo. We foster spaces where critical research and movement inform each other to create artistic work that is meaningful to young audiences and creators in a global community. We believe our work will keep tradition fresh and fun. We do this through collaborations with artists, creators and thinkers from diverse creative fields. We also work with practitioners to fortify traditional methods of transmission with critical thinking. This, we believe, will create art practitioners who look at tradition as a jump board for new ideas than as an artifact that needs preservation.​​
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Please consider supporting our work with a tax-deductible contribution!
DEEPA MAHADEVAN
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Recent Projects​
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​2013: Student dance collaborator, Vaishnavi Dornadula, presented a piece called, “Achi ladki”: a piece on feminism that exposed the different social expectations from different genders.
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2018: Student dance collaborator, Deeta Ganapathy, presented, “Chella Chella nai kutty” a piece that celebrated our non human friends and the profound life lessons they teach us all the time.
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2023: Student dance collaborator, Adhirai Karthik, presented, “Am I content, Am I free?” an exploration of the ever discontent human mind.
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​​2016, 2023: Our artistic director, Deepa Mahadevan, presented “Intimate fears”, a piece that opened up interpretations of traditional songs to present a narrative of domestic abuse.
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​2022: Dancers from our professional dance ensemble, Kiran Umesh, Shruthi Aravindan, and Deepa Mahadevan presented “Finding You In I”, a piece that appealed to ideas of love, peace, acceptance and living in the present moment through dance, music and interactive theater.
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2024: Interbeing performance and cultural event
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Deepa Mahadevan has also collaborated with many artists, spaces, writers to find avenues where she can dive deep into her Bharatanatyam vocabulary and theoretical knowledge to explore new concepts and movement. Please visit deepamahadevan.com to read about a few of these projects.