Ananya Chatterjea (2011, Guggenheim Choreography Fellowship, 2012 & 2021 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, 2016, Joyce Award, 2018 UBW Choreographic Center Fellow; 2019 Dance/USA Artist Fellow), Artistic Director of Ananya Dance Theatre, a Twin Cities-based professional dance company of women artists of color, makes “People Powered Dances of Transformation” intersecting contemporary dance-making and social justice choreography. Her latest work, Sh?trang?/Women Weaving Worlds, was described as characterized by “dynamite dancing… raw power and force” and her choreographic craft was applauded for “drumming up compelling images” (Star Tribune, 9/24/2018), “this company, this work, must be seen” (RV Art Review, 10/28/2018). She has toured her work to the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival, Palestine (2018), Aavejak Avaaz Festival, Delhi (2018), Crossing Boundaries Festival, Addis Ababa, (2015), Harare International Dance Festival, Zimbabwe (2013), New Waves Institute of Dance and Performance, Trinidad (2012), and other national and international locations. She is currently creating a new work with the support of a MapFund award, exploring global connectivities.

Ananya is Professor of Dance at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches courses in Dance Studies and technique. She has presented the keynote talk at the joint conference of Congress of Research in Dance and Society of Dance History Scholars (2016), a keynote speaker in the inaugural panel of the Dance/NYC conference (2019), and a plenary presenter at the Annual Dance Studies Conference (2022). Her second book, Heat & Alterity in Contemporary Dance: South-South Choreographies (Palgrave McMillan, 2020), re-framing understandings of Contemporary Dance from the perspective of dance-makers from global south locations, was awarded the 2022 Brockett Book Prize by Dance Studies Association. Her most recent publication is a co-edited anthology (with Hui Wilcox and Alesssandra Williams), Dancing Transnational Feminisms: Ananya Dance Theatre and the Art of Social Justice (Univ. of Washington Press, 2022).