Ishti Collective
With collaboration at its core, Ishti creates a synergistic environment through dance and storytelling where artists engage with the community to generate meaningful dialogue and push the boundaries of their art.
Watch the Performance
With collaboration at its core, Ishti creates a synergistic environment through dance and storytelling where artists engage with the community to generate meaningful dialogue and push the boundaries of their art. Ishti celebrates expression, promotes joy and artistic risk-taking. Propelled by the collective energy of their diverse artistic backgrounds in traditional Indian dance forms and contemporary dance, members of the collective strive to create works that are reflective, impressionable, timely, and accessible.
“The primary goal of arts is not entertainment but to transport Individuals to another parallel reality where they experience the essence of their own consciousness, and reflect on spiritual and moral questions” - Natyashastra
In 2021, they are thrilled to be re-staging “Prakriti: A History of the Present,” developing a new series “Returning Home” focused on artistic collaboration and a return to outdoor gatherings, and creating spaces focused on rest and restoration.
“Prakriti: A History of the Present” is an exploration into how we, humanity, have arrived at our present day climate. We seek to understand why we can be so unwilling to listen to views, beliefs or behaviors different from our own. We journey to our most primitive/primal times to discover our need for tribes, reactions to the different, and ability to find balance.
Prakriti is a Sanskrit word for the primal motivational force or essence of a being. The basic nature of something or someone. Prakriti represents the force within all of us; a representation of how we can be so intolerant, yet want others to listen and understand us. Why we want to be separate, yet want to belong.
Since its first iteration in 2017, this work continues to evolve and be imperative. Interviewing various community members and collaborating with different dancers and choreographers have lended to a deeper investigation and experimentation with each iteration.
Performers include Preeti Veerlapati, Kinnari Vora and Tuli Bera.
Above image by Michelle Reid
Photo by Michelle Reid