ANTARANGA: Between You and Me
April 14–17, 2025
Ananya Dance Theatre (ADT) returns to the Arts Center April 14 for a residency culminating in a performance of its newest work, ANTARANGA: Between You and Me, on Thursday, April 17. The troupe was last in Sheboygan in 2019, performing Shaatranga: Women Weaving Worlds.
ADT is a St. Paul-based ensemble of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) women/femme professional dance artists who create original contemporary dance theater, upholding artistic excellence in social justice choreography. It was named a Regional Cultural Treasure in 2021 by a joint initiative of the Ford McKnight, Bush, and Jerome Foundations.
ANTARANGA: Between You and Me is set in a world in deep crisis, where most people have lost their ability to sense the energy of other human beings and can no longer recognize or connect with each other. A few humsafar (Urdu for “fellow travelers”) remain, blessed with super-connecting and heart-opening powers. As they undertake perilous journeys, they forge connectivities that may yet heal the world. ANTARANGA is the first work in a multi-year series called Futures Forward and explores themes of intimacy, connection, trust, and community among BIPOC women/femmes.
During the creation of ANTARANGA, Artistic Director and Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea and the ADT ensemble built a new mythology as a metaphor for our times—not to create a fantasy world, but to make sense of the current moment.
“It has been deeply meaningful for me to construct this new mythos in creative response to our current global crises, rent with genocide, war, and epidemics of hate,” notes Chatterjea. “It is my hope that the metaphoric journeys of these archetypal characters, as they grow into their full strength and community, offer patterns for negotiating our own future. The experience of making and dancing ANTARANGA: Between You and Me has been a spiritual search for closeness through dance, for choreography and staging where belonging and care-filled holding of each other across difference is cherished.”
The Arts Center will host an ADT workshop during the company’s residency. Find information at jmkac.org/events and in the JMKAC weekly e-newsletter.
Performances and Events
ANTARANGA: Between You and Me is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by the John Michael Kohler Art Center (Sheboygan), Dance Place (Washington D.C.), Links Hall (Chicago), The Yard (Chimark, MA), and NPN. More information: npnweb.org.
