dNc Guides

Dance and Community Research Institute (dNc) at UNC Charlotte conducts an arts integration outreach program for the South Asian artistic traditions accredited with National Dance Education Organization and National Association for Music Education. Meet our Directors:

Dr. Deepa Mahadevan: Dr. Deepa Mahadevan is an artist scholar. She is a Bharatanatyam practitioner, researcher, teacher, choreographer, and curator. Her doctoral research in Performance studies the history of aesthetics in Bharatanatyam, through the vectors of caste, class, sexuality, gender and religion, between the 1930s till 2020. She strives to explore, capture, and embody the potent energy of every emerging moment in a performance, setting it apart from pre-choreographed dances, which have significantly more predictable energy patterns. Her practice weighs heavily on improvisation and creating work 'with the audience' than 'at the audience.' She constantly strives to find space in her practice that celebrates spontaneity while dealing with uncertainty. Her research and method is excited about accepting any shift in an expected course of events as a prompt from the current moment to accept it and create with it. She is interested in exploring the continuum or the implicit dialog between a trained dancer’s body and the spontaneous dancer’s body.

Dr. Anirban Bhattacharyya: Anirban Bhattacharyya is an outstanding Hindustani Classical Vocalist of the Patiala Gharana and a Social Anthropologist from Kolkata. A senior disciple of Padmashree Ajoy Chakraborty, Anirban aims to break the boundaries between genres and has curved a unique space for him. Apart from Khyal - his forte, Anirban specializes in all the prominent styles of Thumri singing current in India. Anirban is a President of India Gold and Silver Medal Winner from All India Radio in both Khyal and Thumri, A Champion from Doverlane Music Conference and West Bengal State Music Academy Competitions. Anirban has been awarded National Scholarship in Rabindra Sangeet and currently a pursuing Junior Research Fellowship on Bandish Thumri from Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. Anirban has had the privilege of sharing stage with stalwarts of the likes of Kathak maestro Padma Vibhushan Birju Maharaj, Tabla Wizard Ustad Zakir Hussain and Bollywood Superstar Shankar Mahadevan. Anirban has toured all over the globe - from U.S.A, U.K, U.A.E to South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh and ICCR Tour in Bhutan. Some of the major festivals include Cleveland Thyagaraja Festival (USA), Darbar Festival and Dartington Festival (UK), South Asian Music Fest (Singapore), Bengal Classical Music Festival (Bangladesh), NCPA Bandish Festival, Ajivasan Vasantotsav, Swar Samrat Festival in India and many more.

Under the leadership of our directors, we honor our community leaders, also known as dNc Guides, who have worked hard to build epistemologies of practice through their crafts. This list acknowledges the hard work of the dNc Guides:

·       Anuradha Nehru

·       Aparna Sathe

·       Ashwini Gogate

·       Ashwini Srivatsan

·       Chitra Ramaswamy

·       Deepa Mahadevan

·       Deepti Mukund

·       Esha Goyal

·       Kaustavi Sarkar

·       Kriti Rakesh

·       Lavanya Thamire

·       Mallika Vadlamani

·       Marichandra

·       Narayani Mukherjee

·       Pallavi Madabushi

·       Priyadarshini Inman

·       Rugmini Nair

·       Sariga 

·       Seema Vishwanath

·       Sheela Ramanath

·       Shobitha Arun

·       Sridevi Jagannath

·       Sushma Iyengar

·       Uma Shakti