As a Bharatanatyam dancer, I have always believed that the world itself is my stage. Over the years, I have had the privilege of performing in some of the most extraordinary places — venues that have transformed my dance and enriched my soul. Every space I step into, whether steeped in history or buzzing with modern energy, becomes an extension of my artistry. Here are the 10 most memorable venues I have performed in:
Thames Durga Parade, London: A Goddess on the Waves
Picture this: A boat gliding down the Thames, my silk costume billowing in the wind, bells on my ankles chiming in rhythm with the river’s pulse. As I invoked the Goddess Durga, the London Bridge opened above me. The river, ancient and ever-moving, carried my dance beneath its arch, and I felt as if history itself had paused to watch. Passersby on the embankment stopped, mesmerised, and for a few moments, Bharatanatyam became one with London’s timeless landscape. October 2024, I performed my Durga dance opera in tandem with Calcutta’s Durga Puja, conceptualised and narrated by Sanjukta Ghosh, artistic director of SOAS’s South Asian Institute, organised by the Heritage Bengal Global under Anirban Kumar Mukhopadhyay.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: A Whisper with Nandi
Stepping into Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum felt like stepping into another time. The ancient Nandi statue stood beside us, Kristina Veselinova from Bulgaria, an artiste of Sohinimoksha, performed with me. Nandi’s presence grounded us as we performed on Gandhi Jayanti. Our movements wove stories of Shiva, of devotion, of cosmic dance. The silent, learned audience — professors, students, art lovers — watched as the rhythmic beat of our feet broke the museum’s hush. At that moment, we weren’t just dancing; we were conversing with centuries of history. This was indeed a dream come true, organised beautifully by Deepak Singh and the NRI Welfare Society.
La Tabacalera de Lavapiés, Madrid: Bharatanatyam Meets Street Art
La Tabacalera, once a tobacco factory, now a pulsating hub of street art and counterculture, became one of my most exhilarating performance spaces. I performed here with my entire Spanish troupe on a winter day in November. Against graffiti-covered walls, our classical movements painted ancient stories over modern rebellion. Flamenco dancers in the crowd watched with knowing eyes, recognising the same fire in my expressions that fuels their own art. The energy was electric — two traditions meeting in a raw, unscripted moment of cultural fusion.
Anthropological Museum, Madrid: Ancestral Echoes in Stone
I created the Durga opera with all my Spanish students to tell Spain about our Ma Durga, as an ‘I Am’ story for all women, as a philosophy for women empowerment. We performed this dance opera at the Anthropological Museum of Madrid, on the day when Calcutta was celebrating Ashtami. It was a fusion of Bharatanatyam and Flamenco and it was our inner voice. Dancing among artifacts from civilisations across the world, we felt an overwhelming connection to humanity’s shared history. The Mayan deities, African masks, and Indian sculptures around us seemed to whisper their stories as we moved. Each mudra, each rhythm, became a bridge between past and present. The audience, a mosaic of cultures, understood without words — because art, in its truest form, transcends all borders. Sohinimoksha Artes de La India and all its artistes became one with the ambience surrounding us.
La Cabalgata de Reyes, Madrid: A Procession of Legends
The Three Kings Parade in Madrid is a spectacle of grandeur and wonder, and I was honoured to be part of it. Draped in my gold Bharatanatyam costume, I became a celestial figure, moving through the streets with 38 equally adorned performers from my Spanish Sohinimoksha troupe, amidst a sea of light and music. Spanish families lined the roads, expecting fairy-tale royalty but finding instead Bharatanatyam dancers bringing another kind of magic set to Adi Tal. Seeing the awe in children’s eyes, I knew this moment would stay with me forever. We were the first Indian dance troupe to perform at the Cabalgata del Reyes. Madrid town hall was the starting point as the entire city was out late that night and we had 70,000 live audience on ground. Helicopters descended in our midst to interview me as we danced to our Tanjore beats.
University of Salamanca: Knowledge Meets Expression
Performing at one of Europe’s oldest universities, I felt the weight of knowledge and history surrounding me. Under grand arches, I dedicated my dance to Saraswati, the Goddess of wisdom. Professors and students —accustomed to debates and lectures — stood silent, absorbed in a different kind of lesson. For those few moments, Bharatanatyam became a universal language, spoken in movement rather than words. Beautifully presented by Jorge Diego Sanchez, who visited and worked in India multiple times, thereafter, mesmerised by India and her ancient heritage.
Austrian Alps, Innsbruck: Dance on the Edge of Heaven
The Austrian Alps stretched endlessly behind me, an ethereal backdrop to my dance. With each movement, I felt in harmony with nature — the air crisp, the mountains eternal, the sky an infinite stage. My ghungroos echoed against the silence of the peaks, creating a rhythm as ancient as the earth itself. It was a performance beyond human constructs, a dance meant only for the wind, the mountains, and the Gods. I felt grateful to perform with students from every walk of life, organised by UNESCO, in natural surroundings, storytelling with dance, magical stories of Shiva, Shakti and Krishna.
University College London: Corinthian Grace
Beneath the towering Corinthian pillars of UCL, I felt like an ancient storyteller stepping into a space that had witnessed centuries of intellect and discovery. Bharatanatyam, with its roots in temple storytelling, found a perfect home amidst Greco-Roman grandeur. Students and academics, used to absorbing knowledge through books, watched as I narrated history through movement. The connection was immediate — timeless wisdom meeting modern inquiry. I had been invited to perform at the 100 years celebration of SOAS, followed by the Bloomsbury festival, by Sanjukta Ghosh who conceptualised it. Kristina Veselinova and Maria Sanchez accompanied me in all the performances.
Marin Drzic Theatre, Dubrovnik: A Shakespearean Dream
The wooden stage of this historic theatre has seen many performances, but on that night, Bharatanatyam became part of its story. The city of Dubrovnik, with its medieval charm, seemed to embrace my dance as I moved through Držić’s own world of drama and emotion. Each abhinaya, each subtle shift of expression, felt like a dialogue with the theatre’s past. The Croatian audience, accustomed to Western dramatic tradition, discovered a new rhythm, a new narrative — one that needed no translation as I performed the Dasavataram, to showcase the finer nuances of abhinaya.
Los Andes University, Colombia: The Himalayas Meet the Andes
The moment I arrived in Bogotá, I felt as though I had carried the Himalayas with me to the Andes. In this university known for its intellectual depth, I chose to perform Shiva’s cosmic dance — an embodiment of creation and destruction. As I moved, I saw students watching intently, some even trying to mirror my gestures. It was a connection beyond geography, beyond language. Two mountain cultures, two ancient traditions, meeting in one moment of artistic unity. My student Celia from France performed here too. Entirely carved into the mountains, our dance spaces often had the mountains coming into our rooms, our stage. And to walk from our room to another we had to walk through the mountains and keep climbing.
The Eternal Stage
Reflecting on these performances, I realise that the world itself is my temple, my theatre, my sacred space. Whether sailing beneath London Bridge, dancing under Corinthian columns, or tracing poetry in the Andes, I know one thing to be true — Bharatanatyam belongs everywhere. And as long as I can dance, I will carry its stories to every corner of the world, Connecting Civilisations in my wake.