Sujit Vaidya is an independent Bharatanatyam artist living in Vancouver, British Columbia whom you may recognize from this year’s festival poster. As an interpreter, he has performed extensively in Canada, US, Europe and India. He has many solo margam presentations (traditional Bharatanatyam repertoire) to his credit and has performed in duet and group productions with companies such as Co Erasga, Battery Opera Dance, Shakti Dance Company in Vancouver BC, inDANCE in Toronto ON, Spilling Ink in Washington DC, Nava Dance in San Fransisco CA and Nrithyalakshana in Chennai, India. His projects, UMA and Śiva Kissed Visnu , choreographed by Hari Krishnan, artistic director of inDANCE, Toronto, challenge him in new ways as an interpreter. As an emerging choreographer, he creates work that speaks from a deeply personal space. Using Bharatanatyam as language, his work “OFF CENTRE” draws from introspection around his experience of disconnect as a contemporary gay man, immersed in learning an ancient art form. He finds it important and urgent to question the narrative and relevance of non inclusive traditional ideas. As the first South Asian artist to receive the Vancouver City’s Mayor’s award as Best Emerging Dance Artist, 2010 He continues to pursue advanced training in the traditional form of Bharatanatyam with his Guru A. Lakshman in Chennai, India.

You can learn more about Sujit’s work here: https://www.sujitvaidya.ca/about/