The Advisory Board, Biographies
Meera Krishnan
Meera Krishnan works with Prakriti Foundation as their Senior Programme Coordinator. Prakriti is a leading art and cultural foundation in India which conducts festivals, cultural and literary events, and mentorship programs. As a senior coordinator, her role includes proposing and drawing project proposals, coordinating eight major festivals and managing digital and non-digital media communication. She has also been responsible for coordinating collaborative events with international agencies like British Council, Alliance Française, Goethe Institute and INKO. Some of her notable projects include a six-city tour of Akram Khan Dance Company’s Gnosis (2012) in collaboration with British Council and Torobaka (2015) in collaboration with British Council and Embassy of Spain. She holds a postgraduate degree in Mathematics and a Diploma in Arts Management from DakshinaChitra.
Suman Sarawgi
Suman Sarawgi is a professional Manipuri dancer trained in under Priti Patel and Shruti Banerjee in Kolkata. She further pursued her dance education in Imphal under Ojha Th. BabuSingh, W. Lokendrajit Singh and A. LaxmiDevi. She has performed in various prestigious festivals in India such as the Uday Shanker Festival, Kajuraho Dance Festival, Soorya Festival, Murshidabad Festival. She has also performed internationally in Germany, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam and Australia. She has choreographed and taught dance at The Oral School for Deaf, Kolkata, Kolkata Sanved and Modern High School. Currently she is the Secretary of Dance Alliance Kolkata, Co-Director for the Short +Sweet Theatre Festival, Director of Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts & the Creator of the Manipur dance production Leisem. Se is also the Co-Fonder/Director of The Doodle Room, an art centre for children promoting the performing and visual arts in Kolkata.
Urmimala Sarkar
Urmimala Sarkar Munsi is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is a Social Anthropologist, specialised in dance Studies. Beside her principle area of work on body, dance and Society, her research interest is in gender and performance, documentation of living traditions, and performance as politics. She is a choreographer and dancer trained at the Uday Shankar India Culture Centre. Her recent choreography Mohakabber Owpekkhay (Waiting for the Epic Poem) was commissioned by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in collaboration with Shadhona, Dhaka, and performed by dancers from Bangladesh at the Shilpakala Academy on the Independence Day of Bangladesh. Urmimala is currently the Vice President of World Dance Alliance – Asia Pacific, and the Network Co – Chair for World Dance Alliance, Research and Documentation.
Ximena Eleta De Sierra
Ximena is Co-Founder and Co-Director of PRISMA- International Contemporary Dance Festival of Panama and President since 2006 of the Board of Directors of Fundacion Gramo Dance, which manages CIA Gramo Dance (an aerial dance company fusing aerial technique with contemporary dance), runs XIELO a dance studio dedicated to teaching aerial dance, carries out social outreach dance project for at-risk youth, DANZAREA; and organises dance tours to the countryside ( GramoGira), among other dance related events. Ximena holds a BS in Japanese from Georgetown University’s School of Language and Linguistics, and a Master’s in Education ( Literature and Composition) from the University of Texas at Austin.