Artistic Director Bio

Ananya Chatterjea, Artistic Director

ANANYA CHATTERJEA, artistic director, choreographer, dancer

Dr. Ananya Chatterjea is a dancer, choreographer, scholar and educator who envisions her dance work as a “call to action,” with a particular focus on women artists of color. She’s the Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, which she founded, and is Associate Professor and Director of Dance in the Department of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Initially trained in Indian classical- and folk-dance traditions, she’s a well-known exponent of Odissi, which she learned under the tutelage of internationally acclaimed guru, Sanjukta Panigrahi. She is the author of Butting Out Reading Resistive Choreographies Through Works By Jawole Willa Jo Zollar And Chandralekha. In addition garnering numerous awards, her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Asian Arts Initiative, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the McKnight, Jerome, and Bush foundations.