Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Shanta Thake on celebrating Indian culture

Excerpts

What inspired Lincoln Center to dedicate a week-long celebration to Indian culture?

We are always excited to celebrate the cultures that are present in New York City, and of course, there are so many Indians living here. This is a chance for us to celebrate the many, many facets of Indian culture, which of course is so vast, and it’s been very exciting for us as curators to highlight dance, contemporary music, and everything in between.

How did you curate the diverse range of events, from comedy nights to dance performances, to showcase the depth of India's cultural landscape?

We are always travelling and seeing work across the world— looking for incredible talent and to bring the best back to New York and Lincoln Center. We bring a wide array of curators into the space and start to think about how we can explore all these forms of Indian art-making. Our team was very excited to partner this year with the Jodhpur RIFF, which is an incredible festival in Rajasthan focusing on folk traditions in that region. We partnered with them to bring some traditional Rajasthani artists here to Lincoln Center, and we also work with NYLaughs to offer some comedy nights. DJ Rekha also curated a series of DJ silent discos for us. We program Indian artists year-round. Last year we did a Korean Week, so we celebrated Korean culture in the same way that we did with India Week, and it was incredible. The community really came out, and so many non-Koreans came out and got to learn about so many different facets of Korean culture, so we knew we wanted to continue that, and it felt like India was another country that has so many rich aspects of culture that there were endless possibilities.

Can you share any personal anecdotes or connections that drew you to Indian culture and motivated you to share it with a broader audience?

My mom is Indian and I grew up with a great appreciation for Indian Carnatic arts. I studied Kathakali dance and Carnatic singing in college in Kerala, India and I studied Bharatanatyam dance as a child, so Indian culture has always been a big part of my personal artistic expression. I am so glad to be able to share that at Lincoln Center during India Week.

How does the India Week series align with Lincoln Center's mission to expand its cultural reach within New York City, and what impact do you envision it having on the community?

When we do series like this one, all of the events are either free or choose-what-you-pay. They will take place in our Bandshell, our Underground, which is a 250 seat secret speakeasy under the stairs of Lincoln Center, and the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center— it’s taking over so many of our public spaces, and it’s important for New Yorkers to be able to come and explore new cultures, see things that are unfamiliar to them and also get to know a little more about their neighbours or about themselves. This is a huge part of our story. We have an incredible Indian community that surrounds us in the tri-state area and we want to make sure that those individuals understand that Lincoln Center is a place for them that celebrates their culture, and is a place where they can come, feel at home, bring their family, have an incredible time, and be proud that their culture is being celebrated in this space. All of the over 200 events are free or choose-what-you-pay, so you’ll see New Yorkers from all walks of life, and all around the world, because of course, New York is a tourist haven. We’re looking forward to welcoming the world to Lincoln Center and showcasing the best of India in that context.

What role do you see events like India Week playing in fostering cross-cultural understanding and exchange, especially in a diverse city like New York?

Most of these artists, even when they are doing contemporary work, are of course informed by traditions. It’s so nice to be able to showcase both: to be able to have these folk traditions, traditional dance, but then also these artists who are using what they know of their history and how that informs their work today. Even our DJs use traditional music and then move into techno and pop, and artists like Sonny Singh pull from their traditions but also pull that into their lived reality of being a New Yorker, with a band full of artists who are not Indian. It’s a nice mix and it’s always a continuing conversation, but it’s important for us to showcase both, so we can see how these traditions are informed and how these artists are growing those traditions and making them available to a new audience.

How did you collaborate with the various artists and organizations involved, such as DJ Rekha and Ragamala Dance Company, to bring this celebration to life?

Our curatorial team has many relationships with the Indian community and we are glad to explore those relationships throughout the week. DJ Rekha is a mainstay in NYC- world-renowned and we are very excited to partner with her to bring her favourite DJs to campus.

How does Lincoln Center plan to continue celebrating and showcasing Indian culture beyond this inaugural event, and what's the vision for future collaborations?

We are committed to continuing to program from India, the Indian diaspora, in a very ongoing way, in a committed way and a really intentional way, so beyond this summer you’ll continue to see Indian work infused in our programming year-round. We hope that we’ll bring new audiences to this work, people that maybe had no idea of the richness of the culture, or only know about Bollywood but haven’t seen traditional Indian dance, and so we want to make sure we have that opportunity for people to really fall in love with so many different aspects of what is India.

How can audiences engage with the events beyond attending performances, such as through workshops or interactive experiences, to further immerse themselves in Indian culture?

It’s important for us to create experiences on campus, particularly in the summer, where people can enjoy themselves and discover new things, but also be able to relax, have fun with their families, and spend the day with us. You’ll see Indian food vendors, we have games that you can play outside, you can enter into the dance floor and spend the day there before we get started, and spend time looking at the fountain and our 10 foot disco ball that hangs over the fountain. You can explore Campus, and will be able to see many things in one day, which is a beautiful experience for us to watch. All the workshops are free. Minila Shah is doing a wellness workshop on Saturday, and we also have a family program with Kiran Ahluwalia that same day. There are a lot of different ways to get involved and a little bit more hands on. I think Minila Shah’s is one of the great examples of that, where you can come and experience dance and movement but also as a way of healing and feeling connected to one another.