BIOGRAPHY
Rooted in an Indian memory, Calcutta born choreographer and visual artist Vanessa Mirza, challenges post-colonial perceptions of South Asian dance with a unique international multidisciplinary artistic style and aesthetic influenced by her mixed heritage and lived experiences across cultures. Trained professionally in dance in Taiwan, working in Asia and
Europe and now based in London, her research in diversity studies, migration, displacement and solidarity have led to a series of new works on related social themes.
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.
In London she has performed at Swiss Church, The V&A Museum, House of Annetta, Centre 151, Hundred Years Gallery and Ugly Duck Gallery. Internationally she has performed at venues such as Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan and Rabindra Sadan, Goethe Institute, The British Council, Calcutta School of Music, Indian Council of Cultural Relations, The Creative Arts Academy and the International Institute of Management in Calcutta, India.
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 and is the runner up of the Lorraine Lim Award. 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 November 2024 she attended Dance in Vancouver as part of an artist/curatorial development programme supported by FABRIC and Dance Umbrella.
In August 2023 she was appointed as Trustee on the Board of Siobhan Davies Studios, in south London. In April 2024 she secured the Global Talent Visa (Exceptional Talent- Combined Arts) and has made London her main base for work.
Vanessa is currently a full-time Lecturer in Hospitality Management & Leadership at London College of Contemporary Arts (LCCA). Vanessa was a full-time Lecturer in Business at London School of Science and Technology (LSST, Stratford) where she was a Personal Academic Tutor Co-ordinator and Module Leader for several modules (September 2024-June 2026). She is holds a PG Certificate in Learning and Teaching for Higher Education at University of London and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. (FHEA).
