SELECTED WORKS
D.O.B. (2024)
D.O.B. is a solo performance based on the artist’s lived experience of visa negotiations. It is based on the night she left India for the UK after finally getting a student visa which had been in jeopardy because she didn’t have a birth certificate. The sagas, traumas and repercussions of visa applications continued for long after and continue till this day, for both her and others who are artists on visas. In this piece she unfolds some of this struggle as a critical reflection of the current system of immigration and the difficulties faced by migrants in the UK.
Performed at Ugly Duck Gallery as part of the ‘Welcome to the UK’ exhibition in March 2024.
Credits
Concept & Choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Music: Artur Vidal & Sebastien Branche
Artistic support : Dam Van Huynh, Pierre Palluet, Artur Vidal
Research support: Neelanjasa Mukherjee & Monika Dorniak
Text design: Vanessa Mirza
Supported by Centre 151, commissioned by Welcome to the UK/Ugly Duck Gallery
Additional sound courtesy channel 4 news, field recordings and found sound.
LET GO (2024)
Performed at Kolkata Streetscape Carnival 2024, the piece is a short solo where the dancer explores what it is to find a sense of calm in the midst of the “noise” of life.
Credits
Voice & Text design: Artur Vidal
Music: Zachary Ray
Performance and Choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Video/ Stills: Sayan Debnath
Text: Jean-Marie Londeix
Supported by : Chaitown Community
Organised by Kalakaar Project
HER SONG (2023)
Her Song’ is proposed as a dance work created as a physical document of a female dance artist’s life struggles in bodily dialogues with self and the audience. This research started as a solo performative presentation for the Connecting Arts project organized in Kolkata by Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts and Buoyant Performing Arts in September 2015. A 4-week personal reflective movement research resulted in a short 7’30’’ minute solo. It involved exploring motifs and using imagery drawing from life incidents that provoked a continuing journey in dance in India and beyond in spite of many obstacles.
Commissioned by Manifold Space for a site-specific performance as part of the ‘Home Away from Home’ exhibition at House of Annetta, the solo has been developed into a 20 -minute piece accompanied by live music. In this second phase of research the piece is revisited from the themes of migration and displacement and re-imagined in the context of the House of Annetta, it’s history and the stories embodied by it. The choreography uses autobiographical references and experiences described using a stream of consciousness style of text. The movement drawing from Vanessa’s varied contemporary dance training in Asia and Europe, highlights both the connection and dissonance of living in different cultures particularly between Calcutta and London and the confusing, exhilarating and yet sometimes disturbing sensibilities in defining and finding home.
The music score developed by Stephan Barret incorporates live music of the clarinet and objects layered with field recordings and voice. Stephan’s musical approach to this performance will involve tuning in and sounding out in relation to Vanessa’s choreography, ‘her song’, as well as the physical space of House of Annetta and the systems and processes affecting and affected by it, drawing additional inspiration from its recent history, and the energies, potential and possibilities emanating from the myriad activity taking place as part of its summer season.
The work reflects a personal story but echoes themes of a broader social context and relevance relating to identity, cultural inequalities, racial stereotypes and the politics of immigration.
Credits
Concept & choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Sound design & editing: Stephan Barett
Performance: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Field recordings: Asish Singha
Text & Voice: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Costume design: Vanessa Mirza Creations
Supported by: Centre 151 & Vanessa Mirza Creations
Many thanks to Artur Vidal for supporting artistic collaborations, House of Annetta for rehearsal space and the creative inspiration it carries, and the Manifold Space team for commissioning this site-specific performance.
FEATURED PREVIOUS WORKS
STRONGER (2019)
‘Stronger’ is a male duo that portrays the inner voices of a person in moments of strength and weakness. It was created for and first performed at the Unicorn Street Arts Festival 2018, Kolkata, India. The symbolism and meaning of a unicorn to people across cultures is diverse but it is usually seen as a sign of hope and purity. Stronger embodies the resilience and power of the human spirit. Choosing to dream again, amidst dark shadows of past disappointment and recurring setbacks, one is emboldened and made stronger by experience. The movement vocabulary draws upon hip-hop and contemporary dance language.
Credits
Choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Dancers: Sayan Debnath, Asish Singha
Music: Original composition ‘Dhokol’
This project was supported by The Doodle Room, Buoyant Performing Arts & Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts.
SOMEBODY (2018)
‘Somebody’ is a solo piece about finding oneself, going through moments of personal loss, love, struggle, freedom and dreaming.
Inspired by multiple memories, the music reconciles past, present and future. The work depicts intimate
snippets of life, the wish to achieve one’s goals and the aspiration to encounter somebody to share this journey with.
Credits
Choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Performance: Vihanga Rukshan
Music: J. S. Bach
This work has been created with studio support from Rhythmosaic Dance Institute, Sparsh Studio for Performing Arts and The Doodle Room.
LA FEMME ET LA MER (2021)
A solo dance performance by artist Vanessa Maria Mirza in “Perform in response” curated By KCC is inspired by K. C. Pyne’s painting from the ongoing exhibition ‘The (in) Visible and the (un) Revealed : Inside The Secret Worlds Of Kartick Chandra Pyne’. The performance is based on K. C. Pyne’s artwork “Wave” evoking powerful images of the sea, combined with the concepts of bold risk (seen in the piece Dare Journey) and the delicate nuances of the feminine body (depicted in his nude series). The choreography also reflects on the imagery used in Charles Baudelaire’s poem L’homme et la mer / Les Fleurs du mal describing the complexity and vastness of the sea and its relationship with human – existence.
Credits
Choreography: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Performance: Vanessa Maria Mirza
Commissioned by Emami Art in 2021 to create ‘La Femme et la Mer’ in response to the paintings of K.C. Pyne’s curated by the Kolkata Centre for Creativity.
COLLABORATIONS
HOME IS A CLOUD(2024)
A Home Is A Cloud is a large-scale movement and sound piece conceived by Amanda Camenisch and Therese Westin.
Over a period of 3 months, the group has met weekly and explored notions of home, faith and belonging through the lens of music and movement as a form of worship. The result is a 45 minute long, part scripted part, improvised score, consisting of collective movement and song, interspersed with individual solo pieces. There will also be a separate performance of only music after.
Some of the stories, poems voices and songs will feature in a 4 part radio program on Montez Press Radio. The collectively created sound scores and individual solos will be pressed onto a vinyl record that can be purchased later on in the year.
Credits
Conceived and facilitated by: Amanda Camenisch and Therese Westin
Directed and performed by: Abimbola, Clara Soyinka, Dotty, Elizabeth Addoi, Florence Musa, Freida C. McNeil, Funmilda Olojo, Grace Ade, Grace Owolabi, Jani, Ladun Mary Oguntoyinbo, Leo, Ms Jumoke, Margaret, Pham B Long, Priyanka G Geriya, Sharon, Sungyeon Kim, Vanessa Mirza, Zara.
Supported by Space Studios Ilford, Metroland Cultures, Swiss Church and Arts Council England.
GLAM- ETTA ERMINI & DAM VAN HUYNH (2023)
Glam is a 30 minute vibrant dance and circus cabaret, a humorous outdoor street performance celebrating fabulousness. Audience members are encouraged to join in the fun to dance with the cast in this gloriously fast paced show of acrobatics, hand to hand, disco, feathers, glitter and glamorous make-up!
This colourful performance highlights the power of bringing people together through dance, popular music and invites each of us to celebrate the most fabulous part of ourselves. Inspired by club culture and the journey of the LGBTQ+ community, Glam is accessible to all ages and backgrounds.
Credits
Direction
Etta Ermini
Dam Van Huynh
Costumes and Set
Emma Lyth
Music Arrangement
Tommaso Petrolo
Performers
Paul Davies, Laura Kenyon, Tommaso Petrolo, Kennet Robertsen and Vanessa Maria Mirza
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England
With further support from Winchester Hat Fair and Centre 151
Performed at Bournemouth Pride, curated by Pavillion Dance South West.
EXQUISITE NOISE EXTENSION- DAM VAN HUYNH (2022)
‘EXQUISITE NOISE – EXTENSION’ is an intimate web presentation of the online research project led by Dam Van Huynh in collaboration with artists from Taiwan, India and UK taking part in the DBF Residency 2022. This research is based on the exploration of what Dam Van Huynh refers to as “physical sound art” and the relationship between movement & sound. During this residency, the performers looked at how movement can extend sound art into performance, placing both forms as subjects within the art making process: not just as an accompaniment but as an equal part of the performance and at times even as the origin of it.
Credits
Concept: Dam Van Huynh
Performers: Ama Nethmi, Asish Singh, Hsien-Tien Huang, Laura Kenyon, Papia Chakraborty, Sabita Shaw, Sayan Debnath, Song Chun Tsai, Vanessa Maria Mirza, Zoe Dominique Subbiah
Video Editing: Tommaso Petrolo
Special Thanks: Pierre Palluet
SHASHISTHO SHORIR / DISCIPLINED BODY (2019)
Shashito Shorir/ Disciplined Body a play about trauma, healing and surviving sexual violence
TRIGGER WARNING: descriptions of suicide
Credits
Written and directed by Imogen Butler-Cole
From interviews with Tumpa Adhikary, Saptami Paul, Vidhi T, Paramita Bannerjee, Saliya and Anjali
Performed by Papia Chakrabarty, Suktara Khatun and Tilottama Chowdhury
With choreography by Vanessa Maria Mirza
Music by Debjit Mahalanobis
Translations by Paramita Bannerjee Lighting by Sumit Roy
Filmed by Grace Gelder and Tom Vater
Performed at Padatik Theatre, Kolkata
Created for the British Council as part of the Indo-European Residency Project In association with DIKSHA, Kolkata Sanved and SWAYAM