Welcome Theiya Arts
Our second Artistic Fellow joined us in October 2023 for 12 months. We are delighted to welcome Theiya Arts as our second Artistic Fellow to the Centre. Theiya Arts members Himadri Madaan, Nandini Manjunath and Gaby Albornoz join us to consolidate and expand ongoing collaborations with CBSS members.
Theiya Arts are a dance organisation based in Edinburgh that specialises in south Asian classical and contemporary dance. Their previous work includes The Ticking Clock, a South Asian contemporary-classical dance performance that centres on the urgency of climate change.
Theiya Arts have collaborated with CBSS – and specifically with the Beyond Sex theme – since 2021. Working with Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra and Ingrid Young, Theiya Arts created The Story I See, a series of digital performances engaging with ideas around decolonisation, gender, bodies, and storytelling. This work featured in CBSS’s programme of events at the 2021 Being Human Festival. A core part of this collaboration was an experiment in interdisciplinary dialogue, moving between academic readings (on decolonisation, gender and health) and artistic responses to these readings. You can view both the original piece and discussion and the final performance and public discussion.
Building on this collaboration, Theiya Arts secured funding from Creative Scotland in 2022 for Maiden, Mother, Whore. This work built on the methods of interdisciplinary exchange and dialogue developed as part of The Story I See project, and directly explored how gender roles and expectations shape experiences of health, violence and social justice. Theiya Arts performed this piece in July 2023 in Edinburgh. The piece featured original music by Giulia Drummond, performed on the day to accompany multiple dance vignettes. It also built in points of audience participation, where the dancers responded to audience provocations within the performance.
Theiya Arts’ plans for their fellowship at CBSS this year include further developments of the Maiden, Mother Whore project, as well as expanding our discussions about and experimentations with working across artistic and academic spaces. They have already shared work with CBSS, most recently exploring the role of audience in shaping the direction of the performance. Together with colleagues in Beyond Sex, we have begun experimenting with collaborative writing and this month, we are starting a Conversation Series about arts-based methods in health research.
Photo was taken by Theiya Arts of their performance of Maiden Mother Whore, in Edinburgh 2023. Photo rights belong to Theiya Arts.
For more information about their work, please see their website and Instagram pages and watch this space for more news.