Higher Education
RV University: I was one of the founding faculty where I developed a performing arts curriculum for contemporary, liberal education at the undergraduate level. The focus of the curriculum was to offer students opportunities to build an art practice that has creates impact through education, health (including mental health), society and research.
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology: I designed and taught courses that used the body as a site of learning. The intent of this design was to facilitate a wide range of possible learning outcomes: from individually reflective performative self portraits to group performances highlighting or disrupting patterns of bodily behavior in public spaces. I have also curated a 4-week performance festival hosted by the college that included 270 students, 12 artists from across the globe, and 3 venues across Bangalore.
Azim Premji University: I have conducted workshops and seminars at the undergraduate and post-graduate level, both as part of other ongoing courses as well as independently. My approach focuses on embodied learning and the role of the body in learning about the world.
Schools
Center for Learning: I taught dance and curricular content through dance at the primary and middle school level. With the involvement of students and subject teachers, I explored how concepts could be learned through the use of movement, body and space.
Greenwich Dance: My work at Greenwich Dance took me into a number of different schools in the borough of Greenwich (London, UK) teaching dance and working alongside class teachers to deliver curricular content through embodied learning.
Professional Performers
I have taught at performance training centers such as Attakkalari Center for Movement Arts, Bangalore; Theater Professionals, Mumbai; and Terence Lewis Academy, Mumbai. My work focuses on using the body as the key element in performance and in developing presence as a performer through embodied and intentional practice. I continue to teach as a part of Fluid, an ongoing training program for professional performers in Bangalore.
The Bridges Projects were a series of projects initiated by me and a colleague, Maitri Gopalakrishna, that used the arts to create bridges between communities or groups that otherwise might not have connected. Communities that differed along lines of economic class, religion, and age worked together through the arts and performance, creating a space for people to connect, listen and share in an open and trusting way.
Community Projects
At the Center for Educational Research Training and Development (CERTAD) I created a curriculum for the undergraduate level called Creative Education which trained students to be educational leaders in a variety of contexts such as museums, national parks, community centers and galleries.
I was one of three people who envisioned and developed the Creative Expressions curriculum for the Azim Premji University undergraduate program. This is a compulsory stream of learning where all students are engaged with some form of learning through the body.
Before Birla EduTech started a group of schools in Mumbai, they brought together a group of experts to create an integrated curriculum (exploring themes of learning through multiple subjects and disciplines) for grades 1 to 5. I was the dance and drama curriculum expert for this initiative.
The Teacher Foundation commissioned a creative dance curriculum before the idea was a popular trend. I designed and wrote this curriculum in 2009.
Curriculum Development
Through organisations like The Teacher Foundation and India Foundation for the Arts, I have worked with a gamut of teachers from high-end international schools to rural government schools. My focus is to find ways to include creative and embodied learning into the teachers' own practice.
Teacher Education
Peaking Duck Network: I was one of the steering group members of Peaking Duck Network, a Bangalore based collective of inter-disciplinary, like-minded creative practitioners who came together towards a common vision and goal. The network was started to joyfully celebrate our creative passions instead of lamenting our limitations and the paths we were yet to traverse.
Art Makers Reading Group: I initiated, curated and ran a reading group for arts practitioners who were interested in reading work published by other artists. Each season, every member of the group would contribute works based on a curated theme.
Applied Arts Collective: This was a peer-sharing community co founded by me and a colleague (Maitri Gopalakrishna, a drama therapist) that brought together art practitioners within the contexts of education, therapy and community building.