BIOGRAPHY
Vanessa Maria Mirza is a choreographer, visual artist and curator originally from Kolkata, India currently based in London, United Kingdom. Her recent choreographic works include ‘La Femme et La Mer’, ‘Dream Realms’, ‘Her Song’. ‘Somebody’, and ‘Stronger’. Her choreography has been performed in Taiwan and India. Her work ‘Somebody’ was shortlisted for the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards (PECDA) 2018.
She has collaborated with UK based theatre artist Imogen Butler-Cole (2019), US music artist Zachary Ray (2020) and UK based artist Dane Hurst for his international dance film ‘Beyond Barriers’ (2020). She was commissioned by Emami Art in 2021 to create a solo ‘La Femme et la Mer’ in response to the paintings of K.C. Pyne’s as part of a performance in response series curated by the Kolkata Centre for Creativity. She also performed in the online residency project ‘Exquisite Noise -Extension’ by Van Huynh Company for Dance Bridges Festival 2022.
As a Chin-Lin Foundation for Culture & Arts Scholarship recipient she has trained at Taipei National University of the Arts in the Master of Fine Arts (Choreography) program between 2008-2010 and 2011-2013. Since 2004, she has taught and choreographed for a number of school and college concerts, social outreach programmes, dance companies and festivals in Kolkata and other parts of India.
As a visual artist Vanessa has presented her works in solo and group exhibitions in India and the United Kingdom. Her art works have reached buyers in USA, UK, The Netherlands, South Korea and India. She is a Saatchi Art artist presenting works online for international sale since 2010.
She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Dance Bridges Festival and has represented the Festival at international forums in the UK, India, France, USA, Japan, Canada and Bulgaria. She is an ATSA fellow (ARThink South Asia) for 2018-2019 supported by the Goethe Institute, Khoj Foundation and Piramal Foundation.
She led the curation of international dance artists in a collaboration of Dance Bridges Festival for the digital edition of Kala Ghoda Arts Festival 2021 (Mumbai, India) and 3 international digital and hybrid artist jams for Kolkata Centre of Creativity (March-November 2021).
Vanessa was also a consultant with Chaitown Community Kolkata (August-September 2021).
She recently completed a producing placement with London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) (February-July 2022). This was a part of her research studies for a Master of Arts degree in Arts Policy & Managment at Birkbeck, University of London which she completed with a distinction. She has been selected as a fellow for Artistic Directors of the Future’s award-winning board shadowing programming, engaging with boards from Dance Umbrella & Without Walls (March-November 2022).
In August 2023 she was appointed as Trustee on the Board of Siobhan Davies Studios, in south London. She is presently a Lecturer in International Strategic Mnagement and Business English & Communication Skills at King Stage Business School, London where she teaches both undergraduate and post-graduate modules.
