Preeti Vasudevan

Preeti Vasudevan is an award-winning Indian-born choreographer and cultural storyteller now living in New York City, USA. Her provocative theatrical works redefine individual identity, uniting artists and audiences alike and often focus on the collision of eastern and western aesthetics, pushing for a new expression in art-making. Using dance, music, poetry, visual art, mime, theater and other modalities, Vasudevan invites cutting-edge collaborators to form a 21st-century language of expression. Her storytelling challenges the status quo of dance-theater, bridging ancient traditions with the contemporary world.
Vasudevan has collaborated with celebrated artists such as legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Guggenheim awardee Paul Kaiser, and with leading ensembles like Silkroad. Vasudevan's works have been commissioned and recognized by distinguished institutions including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, US Department of State, Glimmerglass Opera Festival NY, Guggenheim’s Works & Process, New Victory Theater, Morph Dance Company UK, and The Alliance Francaise, among others. She has been invited to sit on panels at the National Endowment for the Arts US, US Consulate panel on women creatives, Joyce Theater, and Asian American Arts Alliance.
A key focus of Vasudevan's work is rooted in extending her creativity into social impact work for the youth, fostering the next generation of creatives and leaders. She continues to build her programs in this area through her work with underrepresented communities in countries ranging from the Middle East (Lebanon) to South Asia (India) to the Americas (Montana, working with the First Nations Peoples).
==Early Life and Education==
Vasudevan was born In Chennai, India, and spent her early years in Delhi. Vasudevan stated that she grew up with the influence of her grandparents and great-grandparents, often listening to their wisdom, humor and stories. Vasudevan grew up in a pluralistic and secular India studying at an all-girls Catholic school during her youth, hearing Islamic calls to prayer everyday from outside her school at the local mosque and Hindu verses and chants at home. Her family relocated to Bangalore when Vasudevan was nine years old. 
She subsequently began training with U.S. Krishna Rao and Chandrabhaga Devi. Following her father’s relocation to Madras, Rao advised Vasudevan to continue her training with new mentors - VP Dhananjanyan and his wife, Shanta. Vasudevan and the Dhananjayan's son Satyajit were selected as early dance leaders amongst a select group of young artists pan India for the India-International Dance Festival/American Dance festival held in New Delhi in 1991. 
During this time, Vasudevan began her studies at the Women’s Christian College in India. She went on to earn a Natyapurna in Bharatanatyam from the Conservatory of Indian Performing Arts in 1991. In 1993, she graduated from the Women’s Christian College, receiving a B.A. in Psychology.
==Career==
Early in her career, Vasudevan was the recipient of a Cultural Exchange Scholarship from the Japanese Government and went to Takasaki Art Center College in Japan from 1994 to 1995. At the college, she studied Nihon Buyo (Japanese classical dance), pottery, and calligraphy. As part of her exchange she taught Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) to Japanese students. She performed for the Indian embassy in Tokyo and worked with the great Japanese dancer and educator, the late Kiitsu Sakakibara. 
Vasudevan's solo career started at the age of 15, although she continued to perform as a lead performer as part of her teachers' company, The Dhananjanyans', for years to come. In 1993, Vasudevan first came to the United States on a performing visa. She began touring in the U.S. with the Dhananjanyans, performing in lead roles in their productions as well as collaborative projects like the Jungle Book (1996 -1997) with the Ohio Ballet. She was Assistant Director for the production of The Mahabharata in the Island of Reunion. Vasudevan’s first professional theatre production as a choreographer, dancer, and actor was in Indianapolis for the production of the Indian play Nagamandala. During this time, Vasudevan also carried out arts education workshops at juvenile detention centers in the city through the Young Audiences program. 
In 1998, Vasudevan was asked by the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, Violette Verdy, to perform in honor of the launch of the International Encyclopedia of Dance. Verdy took on a mentor role to Vasudevan, taking her twice to teach at the Chautauqua Institution and then advising her to move to New York City to further her career. Following a 28-city tour of The Mahabharata, Vasudevan began her next career journey in New York in 1999. 
In 2001, Vasudevan went on to obtain her Masters in dance at the Laban Centre in London, graduating as the Valedictorian of her year. Following her graduation, Vasudevan moved to New York in 2003. Her Masters dance thesis earned Vasudevan the Emerging Choreographer’s Award from Joyce Foundation in New York City in 2003. This was followed by an International Choreographic Residency at the American Dance Festival. She went on to take a faculty position in 2004, teaching Contemporary Indian dance and vocal training at the American Dance Festival.
In 2004, Vasudevan founded Thresh, a performing arts nonprofit organization in New York City. Thresh received its nonprofit status (501c3) in 2005. Following the creation of Thresh, Vasudevan (as its artistic director) subsequently embarked upon a nine-city tour in India, performing Strings Unattached - her first trio of contemporary works. Vasudevan spent two years living in India between 2006 and 2008 with her husband, Bruno Kavanagh. During this time, she collaborated with her husband to create and produce an interactive, educational website called Dancing for the Gods, which was used for over 10 years through the Department of Education for New York City public schools as a means of introducing Indian culture to students.
Vasudevan continued to create and perform noteworthy productions, often bringing together classical Indian storytelling with contemporary Western dance. She choreographed her first full length award-winning production, The Absent Lover, based on the 5th century Indian playwright Kalidasa’s Vikramorvashiyam. The following solo production, Savitiri, earned her seven award nominations at the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) in India.Vasudevan has embarked on numerous educational outreach projects. She led a workshop for dance majors at Hunter College in 2013, presented "Re-Thinking Failure" at TEDx Barnard College in 2013, and led a Winter Dance Intensive with the Mark Morris Dance Group in 2014. She also took on guest workshop and speaking roles at Pace University, the Rubin Museum, Sarah Lawrence College, and Fordham University. 
In 2015, she was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and created a production called Veiled Moon, inspired by the work of 18th-century female poet, Maha Laqa Bai Chanda. Later that year, Vasudevan officially became a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban Institute of Movement Studies.
In 2016 and 2017, Vasudevan performed as a special guest at the late legendary baller dance and educator Jacques D'Amboise's National Dance Institute. 
In 2016, Preeti was the first Indian Resident Fellow for the Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University. Vasudevan worked with principal dance for the New York City Ballet, and worked with Amar Ramasar on the development of Etudes, a dance series between two dancers sharing the same heritage but different dance languages. Vasudevan cites one of her mentors, Jacques d’Amboise, as an inspiration during this time. In 2017, she premiered a solo work called Stories by Hand, collaborating with Paul Kaiser. The work was commissioned through a two-year residency by Bill T Jones’ New York Live Arts. She was the first Indian dancer to receive the prestigious 2018 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, as well as the 2018 Dance Research Fellowship by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Jerome Robbins Dance Division researching on Merce Cunningham's works in his centennial year.
In 2020, Vasudevan founded the Red Curtain Project, a digital platform for young audiences, seeking to both preserve and bring new life to cultural stories through performance. In its first year, Red Curtain project produced fifteen performances of stories relating to Indian heritage. Vasudevan partnered with the celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma to create a children's story called Imbo & Elli. In 2020, Vasudevan (through Thresh) created three digital stories for the Adyan Foundation for the celebration of the 100 Years of Greater Lebanon, working with Arabic stories of war and resilience from senior citizens narrating their stories to the youth.Vasudevan also conceived of the First Voices initiative, an ongoing performing arts collaboration between Thresh and the First Nations community in Montana, focused on ancestral storytelling, traditions, and building leadership amongst the youth. In April 2022, First Voices was premiered and screened at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Montana. 
In 2019, Dance Lab NY and the Joyce Foundation selected Vasudevan as one of four female choreographers of color in ballet. Vasudevan developed the early stages of her current work-in-progres dance-opera, L'Orient, which was presented at the Works & Process, Guggenheim Museum. The production seeks to recontextualize the Orientalist gaze. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Vasudevan was commissioned by Works & Process to create a virtual work called Upside Down & All Around. Furthermore, Glimmerglass Opera Festival commissioned Vasudevan for a digital performance of a section of their new opera, The Jungle Book, called Bagheera's Aria. In 2021, following a bubble residency at Mount Tremper Arts, commissioned by Works & Process, a new section of L’Orient: Search for the Real Lakmé was presented at Lincoln Center Restart Stages in September 2021.
In the summer of 2022, Vasudevan was Associate director and Choreographer for The Jungle Book, commissioned and presented at the Glimmerglass Youth Opera festival in Cooperstown, NY. Continuing her current production of L'Orient, Vasudevan developed and premiered a new excerpt, "Speaking in Pointe", at the Flea Theater in November 2022.
==Awards==
Award/Recognition 	Year
Commission, Residency, Works & Process at Guggenheim 	2022
Commission, Residency, Works & Process at Guggenheim 	2021
Beirut Award for Cultural Exchange, US Embassy 	2020
Joyce Foundation/Dance LabNY Creation Grant for Women Choreographers of Color in Ballet 	2019
Virginia Toulmin Fellowship for Women Leaders in the Arts, Center for Ballet and the Arts	2019
US Dept of State Travel Grant Award 	2019
Jerome Robbins Dance Division’s Research Fellowship, NY Library for the Performing Arts 	2018
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Award for Emerging Artists 	2018
Labworks Resident Artist, New Victory Theater 	2018
Selected Artist, DanceMotion USA Fellow-On Program 	2018
Stage Directors & Choreographers Foundation’s Observership Class 	2018-2019
Resident Fellow, NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts 	2016
Artist in Residence, Live Feed, New York Live Arts 	2015-2017
Dance Performance Atelier Award, Laban Institute of Movement Studies 	2015
TEDxBarnard Presenter 	2013
Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards, 7 nominations 	2013
Mahindra Excellence in Theater Awards, Best Choreography, Lighting & Set Design 	2009
Emerging Choreographer Series Residency Program, American Dance Festival 	2003
International Choreographers Residency Program, American Dance Festival 	2003
Outstanding Performance Award, Sri Krishna Gana Sabha 	2003
Yuva Kala Bharati award for outstanding achievement in Classical Indian Dance 	2003
London Artist Bursary Award, Dance UK 	2002
Individual Arts Fellowship, Indiana Arts Commission 	2001
Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship, Arts Council of Indianapolis 	1999
Cultural Exchange Scholarship, Takasaki Arts Center College 	1994
Special Award, Outstanding Solo Performance, Indian Fine Arts Society 	1993
==Selected Choreography==
* Indian Letters (in development), 2023
** Launchpad residency, Works & Process, November 2022
** NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
* L'Orient (in development), 2022
** NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
** Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
* Bicycle in the Sky (in development), 2022
** The Flea Theater, Nova 2022
** Jerome Robbins Dance Division Fellowship, 2018 - 2019
* Drumming a Dream (in development), 2022
** Tudor Park, NY
** LabWorks Residency, New Victory Theater
* Études (in development)
** NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts
* Bagheera's Aria, 2020
** Virtual commission by Glimmerglass Opera Festival
* Upside Down and All Around, 2020
** Virtual commission by Guggenheim Works & Process
* Natakam: Play, 2018
** Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
** National Museum of American History
* Stories By Hand, 2017
** New York Live Arts
** 6-city tour in India, 2015-2016
* Veiled Moon, 2015-2016
** Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
** The Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Boxed, 2015
** Charlotte Ballet's Annual Gala
** National Dance Institute
* Beethoven's Sketches, 2013
** Garden City, present as part of the chamber music
** Society Sunday Series, NJ
* Savitri: dancing in the forest of death - dance-theater, 2012-2013
** Eye on India Festival, The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago
** META Festival, New Delhi India
** Adishakti Theater Laboratory, Pondicherry
** Epic Women Conclave, India
* The Absent Lover - contemporary theater, 2008-2010
** Birmingham International Dance Festival
** META Festival, New Delhi India
** Tree of Life Festival, Chennai India
* Reworking: Past/Present, 2001-2010
** Laban Center London
** Butler International Festival
** Tour of India (9 cities)
** Strings Unattached Season, The Joyce Theater
** Artwallah Festival, Red Bank, NJ
** La Mama Dance Festival of South Asian Dance
Category:People from Chennai
Category:Women's Christian College, Chennai alumni
Category:Choreographers
Category:Storytellers