Nava Dance Theatre and Rupy C. Tut

(Co-Director/Co-Creator)

Nadhi Thekkek is the Artistic Director of Nava Dance Theatre, a bharatanatyam dance company based in San Francisco. Nadhi uses the south Indian dance form to navigate place, identity, and politics through the lens of her lived experience as a child of immigrants and an unapologetic South Asian, diasporic woman. She reimagines how bharatanatyam can serve marginalized narratives that need to occupy space in the US right now. Her latest work “Rogue Gestures/Foreign Bodies” sources community interviews, historical texts, and poetry to explore the intersections of labor, agency, and belonging in our South Asian ancestry. Nadhi’s work has been supported through; NEFA National Dance Project, The MAP Fund, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, and others. Nadhi has performed at various venues; Scotiabank Dance Centre (Vancouver), La Mama Experimental Theatre Club (NYC), Dance Place (D.C.), and Southbank Center (London) to name a few. 

Some of Nadhi’s initiatives include the Unrehearsed (Virtual) Artist Residency Program, where artists create art that challenges the status quo in South Asian dance. She is one of the co-founders of Varnam Salon, a dance series highlighting traditional arts repertoire and local dance makers. Nadhi is on the board of the Western Arts Alliance (WAA) and serves as a co-chair of the WAA Hyphen + Asian affinity group. 

Nadhi has learned bharatanatyam from Guru Smt. Sundara Swaminathan (Kala Vandana Dance Company, San Jose) and Guru Smt. Padmini Chari (Nritya School of Dance, Houston). As of 2012, she has continued training under Guru Sri. A. Lakshmanaswamy (Chennai).   

(Co-Director/Co-Creator)

Rupy C. Tut (b. 1985, Chandigarh, India) studied calligraphy and traditional Indian painting at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London in 2016. She previously received a BS from UCLA and MPH from Loma Linda University, CA.   

Through her paintings, Rupy dissects historical and contemporary displacement narratives around identity, belonging, and gender. As a descendant of refugees and a first generation immigrant, Rupy’s family narrative of movement, loss, and resilience is foundational to her creative inquiries. Tut’s artistic practice expands, innovates, and reframes the traditions of traditional Indian painting. She mixes her own pigments and turns to hemp paper and linen to contend and make visible one’s place in the world.  

Rupy has enjoyed solo exhibitions including Out of Place, ICA San Francisco; Search and Rescue, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco and A Recipe for Brown Skin, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA; and A Journey Back Home, Peel Art Gallery and Museum Archives, Ontario. Tut’s work is in the permanent collection of Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the de Young, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. She lives and works in Oakland, CA and is represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. 

Nava Dance Theatre, currently under the artistic direction of Dr. Nadhi Thekkek, uses bharatanatyam dance, experimental movement, and live music to navigate the complicated intersections of racism, feminism, and identity. Past work has delved into unheard refugee voices, the #metoo movement, and a number of other social justice issues. We explore contemporary history, witness statements, interviews, documentaries, news reports – all with the goal of using bharatanatyam movement vocabulary to serve urgent community narratives. 

Based in San Francisco, Nava Dance Theatre is in a unique position to present bharatanatyam to audiences who may not be familiar with the art form. By exploring the art form through collaborations with other bharatanatyam dancers, visual artists, musicians, and local dance makers, the company is able to share the power of dance, music and storytelling throughout the diaspora and beyond.