“A truly contemporary festival of dance… one of its stature in India! An extremely valuable effort – for opening exchanges of ideas, aesthetic experience, and creative journeys!” – Dr. Urmimala Sarkar (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

” I have heard of Dance Bridges Festival and its impact on the dance community from my friends in Kolkata. I got to meet Vanessa, the director, last year and I was so impressed by her determination. The passion she shares and her enthusiasm to keep the festival going despite all the hurdles she faces is what sets her apart. It is a great initiative and it needs all the support” -Meera Krishnan (Prakriti Foundation)

Dance Bridges Festival is an international dance festival with an emphasis on building artistic and cultural exchanges between international and local dance artists, showcasing and promoting cutting-edge and exciting contemporary choreography through live performances and film screenings. The Festival also engages artists and the wider community providing dance education/training opportunities through choreographic residencies, workshops, artists’ talks, internships and further special outreach events. www.dancebridges.in

Origins of the Festival

The concept for such a Festival was born out of interactions with artists at the World Dance Alliance Global Summit in Angers – France in July 2014. There, several choreographers expressed a keen interest to connect with India, experience the culture, exchange with local artists and share knowledge through creative workshops with dance artists and the community.

Kolkata’s vibrant culture and rich history lays the perfect environment for such an exciting initiative; therefore dialogues to launch a festival began between Dance Alliance Kolkata and a number of international artists. The first edition of the Festival was hosted in August 2015 with the theme ‘Talking Points in Choreography: Dialogues Across Cultures’. Artists included choreographers/dance companies from UK, USA, France, Sweden, Austria, Taiwan and India. Furthermore the dance film programme included works from Canada, Mexico, Norway, Italy, Belgium, China, Germany and the Netherlands.

The Festival received an overwhelming response with enthralled audiences and excited young dance participants eagerly awaiting the next edition of the Festival. Dance Bridges Festival is now held as a biennial international dance festival in Kolkata organized by an independent organization Dance Bridges Kolkata.

Festival 2017, what’s new?

In this second edition, we have expanded on the Festival from a 5 to 8 day event and made it even more inclusive. Here are a few highlights that make this year’s edition even more special:

• An open invitation to artists was made in July 2016 to apply for the 2017 edition with over 180 applications from 41 countries across categories.

• Selections for this year’s Festival, was made by our International Artistic & Programming Committee based in London, Taipei & Kolkata.

• Dance Bridges Festival 2017 will feature performances, films, workshops and talks by artists from Israel, Taiwan, Japan, India, Portugal, Poland, Spain, France, Belgium, Norway, Lithuania, UK, USA , Mexico and Australia; whilst our residency project will gather artists from India, Bangladesh, UK and Canada. We have more than 50 international and 20 local artists involved!

• The Festival will take place across an array of venues, large theatres, intimate spaces, studios, galleries, cinemas and auditoriums.

• We have several Open workshops for participants of all levels of experience this year, as well as workshops for children from 5-7 years and above.

• A special focus is also on the celebration of the UK-India Year of Culture and 25 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India.

• Two new initiatives for this edition are the Internship programme and the Crossover Dance Project. The internships are for young arts professionals/ college level students interested in acquiring hands on training in Festival Management. The Crossover Dance project looks at working with a collective from local and Festival artists to recreate an excerpt of choreography by an international artist.

Who is the Festival 2017 Team?

The Festival is supported by an International Artistic & Programming Committee ( based in London, Kolkata & Taipei), an Advisory Board ( from London, New Delhi, Kolkata & Chennai), a Marketing & Communications Team, Organizational & Workshop Partners, Cultural Institutions, Embassies & Corporate Sponsors, Interns & Volunteers working with the local team in Kolkata.

The financial management is overseen by an Executive Board under Dance Bridges Kolkata. Dance Bridges Kolkata has been launched as a registered society (under the West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961) for the purpose of hosting the Festival and other associated events. It is representative of Kolkata’s dance, arts, music, education, business and cultural communities.

Campaign & targets

We have recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise additional funds to help cover technical costs, artist accommodation charges and production expenses. Watch our campaign video here .It would be wonderful to have your support in this endeavor.

Dance Bridges & Community

We believe in the power of community and the collective creativity of artists working together. We believe that Dance Bridges Festival 2017 will impact many different lives in powerful ways by:

• Bringing a new platform for international performance to the city of Kolkata.

• Making participation inclusive and accessible to new audiences and people of all socio-economic backgrounds by running events on a non-profit basis.

• Encouraging and empowering young dancers in their pursuit of a professional career.

• Nurturing local and international talent through the residency project, internship training, workshops and opportunities of collaboration.

• Imparting educative and fun experiences for everyone to encounter dance through various mediums and from different perspectives.

• Building long term relationships across cultures to enable ambitious artistic exchanges.

• Enabling the international community to experience the history, culture and creative atmosphere of a city like Kolkata and other places in India.

We look forward to your support in making this exciting second edition of the Festival a grand success. We hope you can join us in Kolkata for the event, but even if you can’t, do stay connected with Dance Bridges. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. Email your queries to info@dancebridges.in.