General admission for children 17 years and under is always free

Dancing Across Borders with Preeti Vasudevan's Stories by Hand

Post-Performance Dialogue with Preeti Vasudevan & Soheil Fathi

Thursday, April 11, 2024
7 pm
Calderwood Hall

Join us for an evening of performance and conversation inspired by current exhibition Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West. Award-winning Indian choreographer and dancer Preeti Vasudevan performs excerpts from Stories by Hand, an original solo work that explores the artist’s search for an individual identity through stories that are personal, mythical, and social, before joining Cambridge pastry chef Soheil Fathi in conversation to unpack personal, political, and artistic questions of borders, belonging, and shared memory.

Stories by Hand takes the hand gestures of Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) as the basis for a storytelling dance-theater interweaving East and West, past and present, the mythic and the everyday. Soheil Fathi is a pastry chef, originally from Iran, and now based in Cambridge, for whom migration is a foundational principle of his baking philosophy, and his experiences of migration and building community are at the heart of his bakery La Saison.

This program and others are organized in connection with current exhibition Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West (February 15 - May 12, 2024). Exhibition galleries will be open before and after the program.

Tickets

Advanced tickets are required and include Museum admission. Adults $30, Members $20, seniors $25, students and children 17 and under $15.

Seating in Calderwood Hall is first come, first served. Seating begins 45 minutes before the event. Late seating is not guaranteed.

To request accessible or wheelchair seating please call the box office at 617 278 5156.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Woman with shoulder-length brown hair with a purple top, green jacket standing in front of trees outdoors.

Black and white photo of a man with dark glasses, beard and a bald head with a dark shirt and bandana tied around his neck.

Woman with long dark hair dancing on a white image on a black stage.

Photo courtesy of Artist

Preeti Vasudevan is an award-winning choreographer and performer creating provocative contemporary works from her Indian tradition. Founder and Artistic Director of Thresh Performing Arts Collaborative, her mission is to create experimental productions that foster a provocative dialogue with identity, and our relationship with heritage cultures and contemporary life.

Photo courtesy of Artist

Soheil Fathi, born and raised in Tehran, is a baker and a passionate entrepreneur. Before migrating to the United States, he was the owner and Pastry Chef at Cookie Box Group, a contemporary pastry brand started from his home kitchen in 2000 and expanded to 4 retail stores, a cafe-bakery, and a chocolatier (La Saison), serving more than 400 businesses in the food industry in Tehran today. He has degrees in Material Engineering, English Literature, and Business Management. His love and curiosity for baking started at a very young age and led him to pursue his passion for bringing new tastes and experiences to life. Fathi lives in Cambridge, MA, with his partner and daughter. After being a Pastry Chef at Flour Bakery for almost two years, he decided to pursue his dream; To reopen La Saison in the U.S. and give this new chapter a chance.

Photo courtesy of Thresh

Thresh is a New York-based, female-led performing-arts organization. Founded in 2005 by award-winning Indian choreographer Preeti Vasudevan, Thresh creates a provocative dialogue between Indian and western performing arts, connecting heritage cultures with contemporary lives. The two-fold mission of Thresh is to educate and to entertain. Thresh’s work revolves around the art of storytelling in all its forms—from creating cross-cultural productions that deal with issues of identity, race, gender and inclusion, to outreach programs with marginalized and underserved communities in the US and overseas. Thresh’s work on and off the stage and online provides a safe space in which individuals from diverse groups can explore their own personal stories, gaining confidence and authentic leadership skills as a result. Thresh has recognition and support from leading US institutions including Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, US Department of State, National Endowment for the Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, and arts leaders like world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Jacques d'Amboise, the late legendary ballet dancer and founder of the National Dance Institute for children.

Raqib Shaw: Ballads of East and West is organized by the Frist Art Museum, Nashville, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, with guest curator Dr. Zehra Jumabhoy.

Support for the exhibition at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is provided by the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Steve and Alexandra Cohen, Pace Gallery, and White Cube.

The Artist-in-Residence program is directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art, and is supported by the Barbara Lee Program Fund. Funding is also provided for site-specific installations of new work on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way.

The Gardner Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Preeti Vasudevan is an artist represented by CADENZA ARTISTS INTERNATIONAL, 299 S MAIN STREET, Suite 1300 #9973, Salt Lake City UT 84111. www.cadenzaartists.com