Maya Kulkarni Biography:
A celebrated dancer, choreographer, dance teacher, and commentator, Maya Kulkarni is a highly respected and well-known figure in the Indian dance world. As a performer, she won widespread praise for her flawless technique and story-telling abilities. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times hailed her as the ‘Dancer’s Dancer”. Maya has performed extensively in the US, Europe, and India and composed many of her own dance pieces. In the past decade, she had choreographed 24 new pieces of works ranging from 15-minute to 45-minute long productions in the newly developed Shilpanatana form of dance. Among these, “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'', “Medea’s Passion” and “Adventures of a Naughty Bee” stretch the boundaries of the classical forms to non-traditional themes and demonstrate the versatility and richness of the Shilpanatana style. Maya’s Shilpa Natana repertoire has pieces that are closer to the traditional forms as well. These include the “ArdhanariNatesha”, “Sayankale”, “Yakshini”, “Impossible Romance”, “and The Woman with Parrot “,” The Huntress, and The woman in the Mirror”. The Greek mythological pieces were shown to glowing notices first in 2019 at the ‘Drive East’ festival in New York City. ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ was presented at the Erasing Border festival. “The Adventures of a Naughty Bee” premiered in 2021, while ‘Medea’s passion’ and ‘Impossible Romance’ were presented at the We are Dancing festival on 7th May 2022. ‘Kundalini Rising’ and "Kavacham" - two ensemble pieces were premiered at the Battery Dance Festival in 2021. While a new piece Durga was commissioned and performed for the Queens Arts Council’s annual festival “Making Moves” on 23/24 September 2022. Kulkarni has produced several dance films, in collaboration with Mesma Belsare: ‘In the Creator’s Gaze’ shown in Still Point Expanding film festival in 2020 and ‘Chinnamasta’ in the Grotesque Goddesses” dance film Festival in December 2021 Document. Maya was a recipient of the Ohio Arts Council grant last year and a National Endowment for Arts grant this year. Each was for the creation of new dance pieces in collaboration with an Indian dance practitioner.