Programming

PRESENTING SERIES

Horizon Series-Emerging Artists Performance Series

Launched in the fall of 2012, the Horizon Series is a double-bill performance series dedicated to showcasing talented emerging artists trained in various classical and contemporary South Asian art practices . Each performance takes place at Sampradaya Theatre, giving these emerging artists the chance to perform in a professional venue with an audience of up to 100 people.

This performance series features new artists for each scheduled event. To date, there have been over 10 performances in the series showcasing twice as many emerging artists.

If you are an emerging artist and would like to be considered as a featured performer, please reach out to us at admin@sampradaya.ca with a statement of interest and bio.

Featured artists:

April 7th, 2024 - Priyanka Tope & Shivankari Segha
October 1st, 2023 - Michelle Saji & Jayeeta Banerjee
April 23, 2023 - Shriya Srinivasan & Visakha Ghosh
June 5, 2022 - Triven Kannan & Jannagan Jeyakumar
April 14, 2019: Shobi Ruban & Sonali Skandan
October 14, 2018: Tanveer Alam and Kalaisan Kalaichelvan
March 25, 2018: Shanthini Kangesan & Sridaya Srivatsan
November 19, 2017: Naren Ganesan & Taniya and Puneet Panda
March 26, 2017: Monica Shah & Supriya Nayak
April 3, 2016: Sheniz Janmohammed with Atri Nundy
November 15, 2015: Nithya Garg & Sahana Ratneswaran
March 29, 2015: Hasheel Lodhia & Ravi Datar
November 23, 2014: Sujit Vaidya & Mala Pisharody
March 30, 2014: Paromita Kar & Harikishan S Nair
September 15, 2013: Kiruthika Rathanaswami & Bhavya Kumaran
March 3, 2013: Parul Gupta & Enakshi Sinha
October 14, 2012: Atri Nundy & Nivedha Ramalingam

Kalangan Series

World of South Asian Art

A regular series of interactive and informative presentations by leading South Asian dance and music artists, the Kalangan series features artists invited to perform at Sampradaya Theatre in an effort to connect professional artists from around the world to local audiences. The series is our platform to engage the larger community with the arts and develop an appreciation for classical Indian dance and music.

Featured artists:

Priyadarsini Govind
Ramneek Singh, Malhar Singh, Nikhil Gowd & Sushant Anantharam
Renjith & Vijna
Tanveer Alam
Sonia St Michel & Julie Beaulieu
Usha Gupta Dance Entourage
Pratibha Arts
Vidya Nataraj
Priyadarshini Govind
Urmila Sathyanarayanan
Malavika Sarukkai
Mythili Prakash
Vidhya Subramanian
Nadam Kathak Ensemble
Hemang Mehta
Rajan Sajan Mishra
Leela Samson & Spanda (in collaboration with Flato Markham Theatre)
Laxmi Vishvanathan
Sudeshna Maulik
Sandip Mallick
Pushkar Lele
Rama Vaidyanathan
Enakshi Sinha
Bimbavati Devi
Srijan Chatterjee
Sonya Fatah
Anita Ratnam
Darshak Vaishnav
Rajashree Karandikar
Anjali Patil

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Dispelling Darkness

A multi-disciplinary two-year project that involves artists and survivors of sexual violence to engage with South Asian communities to prevent sexual harassment, Dispelling Darkness is supported through the Creative Engagement Fund by the Ministry of the Status of Women and administered by the Ontario Arts Council. The fund supports partnerships between arts organizations, artists and sexual violence prevention advocates as they create projects that inspire dialogue on consent, rape culture and gender equality to help raise awareness, prevent sexual violence and harassment and promote healing.

The concept behind Dispelling Darkness is to pair artists and survivors in South Asian communities. Participants will engage in meaningful movement and dialogue about eliminating sexual violence and harassment in homes, workplaces and their community through story-telling, puppetry and dance/movement. Our project takes place in Brampton, Mississauga, Etobicoke and Malton.
Sampradaya has partnered and continues to work with a team of community collaborators including Sawitri Theatre, Sharada Eswar and the Punjabi Community Health Services (PCHS).
For more details, please go to our gofundme page – insert link here.

ARTIST DEVELOPMENT

Momentum 2023

Sampradaya Dance Creations proudly presented Momentum 2023, a captivating festival that epitomized the diverse beauty of South Asian dance. This remarkable event offered a global stage for artists to share their profound artistry, leaving an indelible mark on the world of dance. Featuring established talents in the world of dance, including main-act performances by renowned artists such as Jyotsna Vaidee, Narthaki Nataraj, and Navia Natarajan, Momentum 2023 transcended borders. Kicking off each day were talented participants and emerging choreographers from our DanceAdvance initiative - Ankita Alemona, Sukriti Sharma, and Sindhu Nair. It masterfully blended tradition with innovation, showcasing the enduring legacy of Sampradaya Dance Creations. This festival was a testament to the ever-flowing creativity in South Asian dance.

Momentum 2019

This 4-city Symposium was the first of our special initiatives to mark Sampradaya Dance Creations 30th Anniversary year. Following up on the important outcomes of our 2015 Symposium Beyond Boundaries: Imagining New Futures for South Asian Dance in Canada which initiated an important dialogue that focused on imagining the futures of new generation artists working in Indian dance across Canada. Over a packed weekend of keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, film screenings and performances, there was animated discussion and exchange – clearly a much-needed forum for the Indian dance sector.
With the help of our partners in Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa, we conducted a multi-city symposium across the country.

National Dance Symposium 2015

For our 25th Anniversary, SDC held a three-day dance symposium and festival. This landmark project focused on the emergence of new and unique ways of imagining the future of new generation artists working in South Asian dance across Canada towards self-directed careers
The symposium and festival included panel discussions, workshops and film screenings along with performances by emerging, mid-career and established artists.

ChoreoIntense 2012

ChoreoIntense took place from October 1-19,2012 at the Sampradaya Dance Centre. Three participants worked one-on-one with three monitors to develop their choreographic technique and style for two weeks, with the third week of independent exploration to create a solo dance work that was showcased at Sampradaya Theatre on Oct 19, 2012. The three participants were Scheherazaad Cooper from Vancouver, BC; Sonia St-Michel from Gatineau, PQ and Archana Ballal from London, England. The dance monitors were Nova Bhattacharya and Brandy Leary from Toronto and Christopher Bannerman from UK. ChoreoIntense was a collaboration with Sampad, England.

DanceIntense 2009 – 2011

DanceIntense Toronto was a three-year project funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation, in partnership with Sampad, England and York University. This two-week project held over three summers from 2009 to 2011 was an unprecedented and innovative initiative designed to introduce, develop and sustain a unique choreo-residency to benefit emerging and mid-career professionals in South Asian dance.

The goal of the project was to support the development of these South Asian dance artists towards self-directed careers as they chartered their space through the mainstream dance –milieu. Each year, the program invited notable master teachers from around the world to share their knowledge and passion in an intensive schedule of classes, workshops and lectures.

Leaders of Tomorrow 2010

Created and developed in 2010, with the guidance of Piali Ray of Sampad, UK, the initiative included a range of cultural leadership projects for South Asian arts in Ontario. Held over several sessions from June to September 2010, the Leaders of Tomorrow project included participation by 10 South Asian artists and arts administrators through workshops and seminars; facilitating mentorships between senior artists and emerging artists from disciplines such as theatre, dance, film and visual art as well as understanding career placement for artists in the industry.