Courtyard Dancers
Neoclassical and Contemporary Indian Dance-Theater
Welcome to Courtyard Dancers!
Courtyard Dancers is a non-profit community centered arts organization with branches in Philadelphia, and Kolkata, India. We are interested in developing the art of Kathak Dance (North Indian classical dance) as cultural literacy and empowerment.
Courtyard Dancers has created and presented original works since 2000; it is a collective of a vibrant and diverse group of professionals and students for whom dancing is a form of civic engagement to connect to the traditional arts of India; but within contemporary aesthetics and progressive politics. The company aims for artistic excellence by adhering to the precision and rigor of classical Indian dances but with a critical understanding of their exclusionary politics.
We are especially interested in working with the poetic forms in Kathak such as Ghazal, Thumri, and Qawwali for exploring emotional landscapes of love, justice, humanism and hope.
We offer regular classes to children and adults, Kathak workshops, performance opportunities for our students and collaborators, and seminars.
We hope you will join us to create community with music and dance.