2011, ensemble, 75 mins
Collaborators: Laurie Carlos (director/music/performer), Mankwe Ndosi (performer/music), Pooja Goswami (music), Greg Schutte (music), Annie Katsura Rollins (costume and set design).
To be premiered: September 8th – 11th at the Southern Theater, Minneapolis.

2nd installment of quartet on women and violence.

2010, ensemble, 80mins
Collaborators: Laurie Carlos (director/music/performer), Mankwe Ndosi (performer/music), Pooja Goswami (music), Greg Schutte (music), Annie Katsura Rollins (costume and set design).
Premiere: Southern Theater, Minneapolis, MN

1st of a quartet of work surrounding women and violence.

2009, ensemble, 75 minutes
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan (score) Dipankar Mukherjee (direction); Rex (costumes); Carol Salmon (scenography)
Premiered, Southern Theater, Minneapolis

Culmination of the collaboration with leaders from the Women’s Environmental Institute.

2008, ensemble, 75 mins
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan (score) Dora Arreola (direction); Rex (costumes); Tacoumba Aiken (scenography)
Premiere: Southern Theatre, Minneapolis

Based on a collaboration with leaders from the Women’s Environmental Institute.

2007, ensemble, 75 mins
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan(score); Gulgun Kayim (direction); Rex (costumes); Joel Sass (scenography).
Premiere: Southern Theater, Minneapolis

Based on a collaboration with leaders from the Women’s Environmental Institute.

2006, ensemble, 75 mins
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan (score); Joel Sass (direction); Rex (costumes); Seitu Jones (scenography).
Premiere: Southern Theater, Minneapolis

An exploration of histories and pathways, of loss and femininity through the metaphor of water

2005, solo, 60 mins
In collaboration with Sardono Kusumo
Sono Seni Theater, Solo, Indonesia

Structured improvisation

2005, ensemble, 90 minutes
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan (score); Dipankar Mukherji (direction & scenography); Rex (costumes)
Premiere: Southern Theater, Minneapolis

A journey into a state of being where we are able to focus on the desires, hopes, and aspirations that sustain life.

2003, duet, 35 mins
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan in collaboration with Futuresonic (score)
Premiere: Philippines Cultural Center, Manila

Visphot means explosion, which can also allow for future fertility and creativity.

2003, solo, 11 minutes
Collaborators: Shubha Mudgal & Aneesh Pradhan in collaboration with Futuresonic (score)
Premiere: Southern Theater, Minneapolis. Commissioned by Walker Arts Center and Southern Theater’s Momentum series.

Pallavi literally means “blossoming,” and is a traditional part of the Odissi repertoire in which increasingly complex rhythmic and movement patterns unfold. Here, Pallavi is reimagined as the explosive unleashing of a woman’s consciousness.

2003, created and performed in collaboration with Hari Krishnan, 30 minutes
Collaborators: Peter Chin (score); Dipankar Mukherji (direction); Cyla von Tiedemann (visual design); Patti Walker (scenography); Rex (costumes)
Premiere: Harborfront Theater, Toronto, Canada

Inspired by Tantric interpretations of gender ideology culled from 9th century Sanskrit sources, this piece investigates the masculine and feminine through the personal voices and experiences of its creators.

2002, created and performed in collaboration with Thomas De Frantz, 22 minutes
Collaborator: Akili Jamal Haynes (score)
Premiere: Kresge Theater, Boston

A search to build alliances while respecting different cultural histories and traditions.

2002, solo, 17 minutes
Collaborator: Reshma (traditional Sufi) (score)
Premiere: Habitat Center, Delhi

A response to state-sponsored violence and the community’s journey toward peace.

2002, solo, 14 minutes
Collaborator: Meena Natarajan (performing poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz)
Premiere: Sutra Dance Theater, Kuala Lampur

Inspired by the mothers of Kashmir searching for their missing children, and by mothers everywhere who have lost so much.

2002, solo, 16 minutes
Collaborator: Nirmala Rajsekhar (score)
Premiere: Nehru Center, London

Based on a woman’s search for self-esteem in love.

2001, solo, 9 minutes
Premiere: Lighthouse Theater, NYC

An invocation.

2001, ensemble, 1 hour 45 minutes
Collaborators: Nirmala Rajashekar, Manjunan Gnanaratnam and poetry by Jigna Desai (score)
Premiere: Barker Performance Space, Minneapolis

Sparked off by a suicide note left by a young woman who suffered much domestic abuse.

2000, ensemble, 9 minutes
Collaborator: Sonia Sanchez (score)
Premiere: Ted Mann Hall, Minneapolis. For the opening of the National Teleconference for Women In Higher Education.

A signature piece, fireworks of rhythms in counterpoint.

1998, solo, 25 minutes
Altschul Auditorium, NYC

A revisioning of Sita, the central female figure of the Indian epic the Ramayana, to raise an urgent plea to find the peace and resist violence.

1998, ensemble, 40 minutes
Collaborators: I’ll Stay on the Battlefield (score) with poetry written and performed by Sonia Sanchez and Mystic Oceans by Sweet Honey in the Rock
Text: Nampally Road and Mosquitoes in the Main Room by Meena Alexander
Premiere: Asian Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA

This piece remembers how Rameeza Bi, a working-class Muslim woman, was gang-raped by a group of policemen and left to die in the police station in Hyderabad, India, in 1978.

1997, ensemble, 8 minutes
Premiere: Diwali Festival, South Street seaport, NYC

Bhairavi is an aspect of the goddess in Tantric philosophy.

• 1996,ensemble, 45 minutes
• Collaborator: Rashmi Singh who composed and sang Alaap
• Visual material created by Shashwati Talukdar
• Poem: Whack! the sun slapped the sky! Composed originally in Bengali by Suman Chatterji, and translated into English by Sudipto Chatterji
• Premiere: Museum of Natural History Auditorium, NYC

Roop Kanwar was burned to her death on her husband’s funeral pyre on September 1987 in Rajasthan, India. This piece remembers this incident, raises questions about general lack of knowledge about what really happened, and on the activism of the countless women who risked much to say “NO!” to this crime.

• 1994, created and performed in collaboration with Joseph Mills, 19 minutes
• Premiere: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Desh Pardesh Int’l Festival, Toronto, Canada.

Explores the politics of power and sexuality in a cross-cultural relationship.

• 1994, solo, 7 minutes
• Collaborator: Kimmika Williams Witherspoon (poetry)
• Premiere: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Desh Pardesh Int’l Festival, Toronto, Canada

Based on Witherspoon’s poem, Braiding, this piece celebrates the legacies created and passed down through generations of women in different cultures.

• 1993, duet, 14 minutes
• Premiere: Choreographic showing, U. Penn Theater, Philadelphia.

Inspired by images of Kali, the Hindu goddess of female power and sexuality, in terms of contemporary womanhood.

• 1992, solo, 20 minutes
• Premiere: Conwell Theatre, Philadelphia.

A revisioning of the story of Draupadi, the central female figure in the Indian epic the Mahabharata, from a feminist perspective.