Dance Center Artistic Director Meredith Sutton spoke with Natya Dance Theatre’s Hema Rajagopalan about the company’s upcoming 50th anniversary concerts at the Dance Center March 19 - 21, 2026.
Meredith: Congratulations on this impressive milestone, Hema! How would you describe Natya Dance Company’s full-scale journey and the performance you are creating to mark the 50th anniversary?
Hema: It's about the river that flows. It meanders and it grows and it gets into so many challenges on the way. The river thinks that the river is the doer. The individual thinks ‘I am the doer and I am the one that controls everything.’ Without realizing we are not! The title of the work is in Sanskrit, Sharira/ Shariri Held Within. Sharira refers to all life and non-sentient things in this world/universe and Shariri is that one universal spirit that exists in every being and controls all and holds all of us together. Whether you call it fate, or your karma, or destiny, or circumstances, it is realizing that I'm not the doer. The doer melts, you know. It’s little philosophical but it's not mythological or religious. We're talking about the Sharira being the bodies, all the sentient and the non-sentient beings of this entire world or universe. We are all connected to that one holder, the one spirit that moves, the current that moves, and we fail to think that that is basically the one that finally has control of us.
Meredith: That's so profound, Hema. I find myself reflecting on how we have called this season MOMENT+MOVEMENT at the Dance Center, thinking about what's happening around us, what's happening within us, how that causes us to reach out and to connect and to share energy, share stories. It’s an inseparable intersection of who we are at this present moment in time and how that continually and inevitably guides us forward.
Hema: It’s your title that inspired me to think this. Because moment is this moment. How we move forward, movement is that. In my production, the Shariri is the movement and the Sharira is the moment. I thought to take the metaphor of a river that flows. The river thinks: there are so many families that are living because of me. The fields are growing, the trees are growing, the fruits are growing. Industry is coming up. I'm the doer. So I meander and I go and I'm so full of myself and I feel I'm the one who does it. Then it come across challenges, there are dams and embankments, and the river is going to be diverted by some other group of people, and there are clashes, and they want the water, and the river starts saying: I'm going to decide who's going to get the water, so maybe this part of the area should thrive and this part should not, it's my decision. Again, the river does all this manipulating and comes to a point where it cannot, nature takes hold and there is drought, and that river becomes a mere trickle. And it still thinks: I can do it, I can still get up to speed and I can make everything flourish and run because of me, because I'm the owner, I'm the leader, I'm the doer. But finally, it's so weak that it's hardly able to move. Movement becomes very chaotic and very difficult. Finally, when it reaches the ocean, there is that realization that hits it: I am not the cause of the water. The ocean is the cause for me. Without the ocean, I would not be here. The ocean is the one that takes the water up into the air and the clouds and the rain, and then only I become. I'm not the doer. We all exist and we all cohesively have to hold hands and connect with each other. Without each one, we cannot really function, we have to be working together in order to feel full, in order to be full.
Meredith: That connection to imagery serving as the point of inspiration is so clear. I’m also wondering how you navigate between preservation and innovation within a classical dance form?
Hema: When we say classical Bharatanatyam, it means it's a fine art. It doesn't mean it's ancient. We use hand gestures which are called mudras, but we also express through body movements, So it is not something that is classical in terms of a museum piece. It's just different movement vocabulary. Of course, within the classical tradition, we have parameters, but the movement vocabulary is something that I have always pushed the envelope. That’s why I'm so happy to present it at the Dance Center, because we've been performing there since 2001, our 25th anniversary, when we co-presented the first international world conference in the U.S. on Bharatanatyam. We debated what is classical, what is contemporary, and so on. Our tagline is, What is contemporary? What is classical? We are contemporary. We are classical because being contemporary is our tradition. Why? Because we want to reach contemporary audiences at all times. The dance is based on a 3,000-year-old text, the Natyashastra, but at every era, people have evolved and movement vocabularies evolve. The style is so vast. I was the first Indian dancer to get the Chicago Dancemakers Forum fellowship in 2004. And I created a work called Inside Outside, where I created classical movements of Bharatanatyam and then created movements based on the Natyashastra which only describes how you use your foot, how you use your arms, and so forth. And I connected the two. I can find movements in a contemporary Modern dance, in Irish dance, African dance and I can connect those movements. it's a language. I think I don't see it as classical or contemporary.
Meredith: It sounds like the text is prescribing a way of execution, but there's so much space in between for filling in, to pull in nuance, to pull in expressivity, to pull in dynamism. Can you elaborate on the idea of rasa?
Hema: The exact English is very difficult, but the way we describe rasa is an aesthetic experience that transcends the onlooker. That's simply that. When you see a great play or a great dance or listen to great music, it could be anything, the high that you get, that is rasa. Rasa is integral to any art form, any genre. It doesn't have to be Indian to have rasa.
Meredith: I often refer to that for myself, the overtake of the sensory experience that transcends into something else. Whether I'm aware of it or not, I often find myself moving along with something. It is involuntary.
Hema: Yes, that's the key. The involuntary feeling of bliss when you move, when you let others move, or you see something, that is rasa. This is something which the onlooker feels and experiences—that high. It needs to be transforming. That's why most of our aim is to create works that are transforming, not just for entertainment. Pure entertainment will not transform, it'll be very short-lived. But if something is transforming, we can call that art. Entertainment is also art, I'm not saying no, but the rasa-creating quality is that.
Meredith: It’s what resonates, what remains. When I think about the many touch points of Natya Dance Theatre and the Dance Center, it is a beautiful kind of flowering, or evolution, over time. What do you hope remains and resonates with audiences from this offering?
Hema: I hope the audiences will see the flowering of our art form, the flowering of it being contributory, being contributed. You know, I performed at the Dance Center in 1984 as a soloist, very classical Bharatanatyam with a full orchestra from India. And I used to teach at the Dance Center, and had several collaborations, as well as Natya Dance Theatre performing there. As an artist, I have met so many other artists there, which has influenced my art form. I don't think my art form would be where it is without my experiences at the Dance Center. I look at the Dance Center, as that tree that pushes the branch out where I flowered. As a CDF artist, we used to visit each other's works. Lane [Alexander] would be in one studio, Shirley [Mordine] would be in the other studio. It's the coming together. The Dance Center has been a learning center for me. I've seen so many contemporary presentations which really have inspired me. If I had been in my own cocoon and been in India, for example, would my art be like this? No. When we go and perform in India, they look at us and, now, are really understanding. Now people are doing those kind of works which are very contemporary. I want to say that the Dance Center's contribution, if I may say so, to my art is huge.
Meredith: Thank you for sharing that. We are dedicating this season to the Dance Center’s Shirley Mordine and her artistry and legacy. Hearing this is quite the full circle moment in so many ways about how what she built the Dance Center to be inspiring you as an artist and how that continues to do so for our students and other artists.
Hema: Shirley and I collaborated on several works, you know, I want say more than four or five works. We performed several short works and then we did a full-length collaboration with her company and she even went with me to India to experience the diverse cultures coexisting When we were working on our production.
Meredith: Ties with the Dance Center truly run deep! I think about reaching the 50th milestone and how it is a time for acknowledgement and celebration and reflection, but also renewal and the start of a new chapter. What excites you about the future of Natya Dance Theatre?
Hema: As we speak, there's a succession plan going on. My daughter, Krithika Rajagopalan, is the new next gen, and they have ideas of doing stuff in a different way, teaching classes in a different way. She was, she is still, a huge part of Natya, how we work, and her choreographic inputs have been very influential in my work as well. I think it's all very exciting. I think we have to keep evolving like the river.
Meredith: Thank you for this rich reflection, Hema, we are honored to be able to partner again and look forward to your performance in March.
