2 hrs ago
Mumbai Choreographer Selected for Taiwan’s International Young Choreographer Project
Shruti Maria Datar is a choreographer from Mumbai who makes dance to explore people’s lives and histories.
In 2026, she was chosen for a dance project in Taiwan with seven other emerging choreographers.
She worked with Taiwanese dancers on a piece about work that women often do without recognition.
As she listened to the dancers, she changed the piece to focus more on tiredness and pressure to keep working.
Datar also received a scholarship to study dance in London.
In Mumbai, she is researching the East Indian community and the stories, songs and everyday movements that help keep its culture alive.
She believes culture is not frozen in the past; people continue to shape it.
She is also working to build an independent dance practice that can last.
Shruti Maria Datar was selected as one of eight emerging choreographers for the 2026 International Young Choreographer Project in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and is the only Indian in the cohort.
At the residency, she developed Strands of Duty with Taiwanese dancers, exploring women’s often-unseen labour and later shifting focus toward exhaustion and fatigue.
Datar received a 2026 Global South Scholarship to pursue an MA in Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism at London Contemporary Dance School.
An India Foundation for the Arts grant supports her research into Mumbai’s East Indian community, including its oral histories, cultural practices and embodied knowledge.
Her work examines how culture, gender, labour and history shape bodies, while she also navigates the practical challenges of sustaining an independent dance practice.
- Who
- Shruti Maria Datar, a Mumbai-based choreographer, was selected as the only Indian in the 2026 International Young Choreographer Project cohort.
- What
- She was selected for the Taiwan project and is also pursuing dance studies in London and researching Mumbai’s East Indian community.
- Where
- The project is in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Datar’s studies are in London, and her community research is in Mumbai.
- When
- The selection, scholarship and grant are for 2026; the article does not give the residency dates.
- Why
- Her work investigates how bodies carry and express ideas about labour, gender, culture, memory and whose knowledge is valued.
Key facts
- Choreographer
- Shruti Maria Datar
- Project
- International Young Choreographer Project (IYCP), 2026
- Cohort
- Eight emerging choreographers; Datar is the only Indian participant
- Project location
- Kaohsiung, Taiwan
- Taiwan work
- Strands of Duty, developed with Taiwanese dancers
- London studies
- MA in Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism at London Contemporary Dance School
- Mumbai research
- Research into the East Indian community, supported by an India Foundation for the Arts Arts Research Grant
Quotes
Shruti Maria Datar
Mumbai-based contemporary choreographer, researcher and educator selected for the IYCP.
“There are three different contexts through which I ask similar questions: What does society put on our bodies? What do our bodies remember and inherit? Whose labour and knowledge gets valued and erased? And how can movement performance become a way of investigating, observing, questioning, and reimagining those things?”
freepressjournal.in
“The biggest challenge is not simply creating work, but building a practice that can survive, develop, and commit to the idea that we are in it for the long haul.”
freepressjournal.in
Sources
Related news
India Cultural Calendar Brings Art, Theatre, Comedy And Music
Indu Mitha Carried Bharatanatyam Across Partition and Pakistan
NCPA’s Nakshatra Festival Brings Classical Dance Traditions Together
India’s Cultural Calendar Features Art, Comedy And Music
Documentary Explores Adoption, Identity and Belonging in Indian American Family
Shalini Adnani’s Our Share of Sand Competes at BFI London Film Festival
Rebecca F. Kuang’s Taipei Story Explores Language and Identity
Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to Visit US Conference
Trump-Xi Summit Eases Trade Tensions but Leaves Core Disputes Unresolved
Lin Yu-ting Wins Asian Games Gold After Eligibility Dispute
