PARIJAT DESAI, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Parijat Desai is a Lester Horton and Fulbright award-winning dance artist/educator based on unceded Munsee / Lenape lands, or Washington Heights, New York. Captivated by dance as an interdisciplinary medium, Parijat creates hybrid performance from contemporary dance, Gujarati circle dance and ritual, Indian folk and classical dance, and experimental theater with Parijata Performance Projects. Critics have called Parijat’s work “a seamless blend of new and old” (New York Times) and proof “that dance can be a healing art” (LA Times).

As a performance maker, she is concerned with the constant play between our emotional landscape, political realities that plague us, and the natural world. Through the challenging process of blending form, Parijat expresses a South Asian American identity, defies notions of cultural purity, and stands against xenophobia. Her movement vocabulary includes contemporary dance, Gujarati folk dances (garba/raas), bharata natyam/kuchipudi, and martial arts. Her choreographic influences come from various American modern and postmodern practices, and the Tamalpa LifeArt Process®, developed by iconic choreographer Anna Halprin and therapist/dancer Daria Halprin.

In 2023, she choreographed the off-Broadway debut of Deepa Purohit’s, Elyria,, incorporating Gujarati dance and music, and was a Visiting Artist at Bennington College where she began working on O Ghostly Ancestor (October 2024). Since 2019, Parijat has been developing How Do I Become WE a suite of performances that incorporate participation and engagement with nature. Employing hybrid choreographic and musical languages, ritual sourced from the Navratri rituals of Gujarat, plus a dose of the trickster, these works explore how we might reconnect with the natural world, release hurt, and activate our collective energies.

As an educator, Parijat facilitates participatory-dance experiences through Dance In The Round, marshaling her ancestral circle-dance traditions, garba and raas, for community engagement, activation, and well-being. Her DITR program includes intergenerational and age-specific classes in studios, schools, community centers, and on Zoom; spontaneous participation at outdoor festivals, galas, parties, and protests; and organizational workshops on creative visioning and team building. Through her somatic practice and circle dance, she supports reconnection with our bodies, expressing ourselves creatively, and experiencing the self as part of a larger whole.

CRED (click to see venues, residences, and grants/awards garnered)

Artist Statement (video 5 min)