Jenn Pamela Chowdhury and Shilpa Darivemula of the The Aseemkala Initiative speak on the relationship between traditional dance practices and transforming healthcare.
FACILITATORS:
Jenn Pamela Chowdhury: With deep roots in Bangladesh and Brooklyn, Jenn is a writer and storyteller who believes in the power of words in bringing communities together. In spring 2017, she joined the cast of Yoni ki Raat - a New York City-based community production where South Asian/Indo Caribbean cis, trans and gender nonconforming artists share powerful and authentic stories that are often silenced and ignored. She wrote and performed "Breathe," a monologue about mental health, at Dixon Place Theater. Her idea of joy involves trees, her loved ones, her camera and her bright red raincoat.
Shilpa Darivemula: Shilpa is a fourth year medical student at Albany Medical College. She is the founder and co-director of The Aseemkala Initiative, a traditional dance collaborative using the arts to explore human rights for women in medicine. She served as 2017 AMWA Artist-in-Residence, presenting her dances at the International Human Rights and Art Festival, Toledances Festival in Fez in Morocco, ArtWallah LA, and the Southern Vermont Dance. Her work has been presented at the North American Refugee Conference and the International Papilloma Conference. Shilpa currently serves as the head of Global Initiative Against HPV and Cervical Cancer’s Artistic Committee, student leader in Studio AMWA, and director of research at Alianza Arkana. She plans to continue this work as an OB/GYN resident at Dartmouth this year.
Resource Shares:
Other articles that talk about the connection between art and healing include:
Kazhakstan Traditional Medicine.pdf
Links on the Devadasis (very very limited—definitely needs more articles presenting the full picture/history)
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thenewsminute.com/article/how-art-devadasis-was-appropriated-create-world-bharatanatyam-38808%3Famp
https://www.google.com/amp/s/yourstory.com/2017/04/devadasis-india/amp
Documentary:
https://vimeo.com/vivekachauhan/from-sadir-to-bharatanatyam
Links to programs working on using dance to heal:
Kolkata Sanved:
http://kolkatasanved.org/