About 

Priyanka is a lawyer by education and a professional classical dancer based in Bangalore. She has trained in Bharathanatyam for more than 25 years and Kathak for about 10 years. She has also learnt the margi techniques of movement. Priyanka has performed extensively in both solo and group formats in India and abroad along with reputed dance companies. She is currently a freelance performer, curator, choreographer, and facilitator.

 

Priyanka is the founder and director of ‘Nirali’. Presently, Nirali is involved in reimagining classical dance pedagogy through training, performance, research, choreography, community building, and the creation of new work. 

 

In her performances, Priyanka engages with the politics of the form and its history. Her work is rooted in tradition but attempts to be accessible, critical, and contemporary. Priyanka is building a new body of work in Bharathanatyam that includes relevant content, a thinking mind, questions, personal stories, and political contextualization, and has the ability to leave the audiences with an experience. Priyanka explores interdisciplinary approaches, methods, and collaborations that provide space and agency for her co-creators and audiences. Through her work and classes, Priyanka interrogates the culture of her practice and makes the world of law, critical thinking, tradition, technique, and story-telling, come together.