Blue13 Dance Company, the celebrated LA-based dance ensemble living at the intersection of diaspora and disruption, returns to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts with five culturally daring Bollywood-inspired works by Artistic Director and prolific choreographer Achinta S. McDaniel, on Friday, May 12, 7:30 pm, and Saturday, May 13, 2023, 7:30 pm, in The Wallis’ Bram Goldsmith Theater. The program includes a preview of Sounds Like a Whoop, Looks Like a Flash, a work in progress exploring invisible disability and addiction; the company premiere of 1947, which addresses the effects of the India-Pakistan partition; excerpts from Shaadi Medley featuring Bollywood and Bhangra dance; and Restless autumn, restless spring, which examines what it means for artists to share experiences and create work together and features an opportunity for audience participate in multiple formats, including taking the stage. Blue13 also presents Dear Mr. Khan, a piece challenging gender norms and impossible ideals set forth for Asian American women. It is the first part of McDaniel’s triptych, Terpsichore in Ghungroos, which premiered at The Wallis in February 2020.
Blue13 Dance Company employs a powerful spectrum of joy and resistance through rhythm, Bollywood, and emotional expression. The company’s work rejects monolithic representations of both Indianness and contemporaneity and reveals complexities intrinsic to South Asian and intersectional identities via provocative and boundary-exploring new works.
McDaniel, at the forefront of L.A.’s Bollywood dance and cultural scene for nearly two decades and a go-to choreographer for the film and television industry, has been integral in shaping Hollywood’s depiction of Bollywood dance.
Tickets, $29 to $79, are on sale now. The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts is located at 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. To purchase tickets and for more information, please call 310-746-4000 or visit TheWallis.org/Blue13.