Nithya Nagarajan (b. Kuwait) is an Indian-Australian artist and curator whose practice adopts movement as a system of inquiry into the sacred, the sensual and the decolonial. Her performance work affects sensory perceptions of the witness through a collaborative process of meaning making, underpinned by a strong feminist sensibility.
With a foundational training in Bharatanatyam, Nithya is interested in an expanded understanding of movement as: grammar, construct, philosophy, political conduit and chaos.
Nithya’s practice is wary of the conceptual complicity of discipline and often invites the non-artist as co-performer. In the participatory dance project Sacred Grooves for Secular Spaces, Nithya summons a radical congregation of hope with dancers, composers and faith leaders who delve into the interior architecture of belief.
She is currently working on a semi-autobiographical one-woman dance theatre work with theatremaker Liv Satchell that explores coming of age in a culture of abuse.
In her curatorial practice, Nithya collaborates with artist-activists from the subcontinent to present body based interventions in contemporary contexts.
She is widely published and has worked in a range of institutions in the UK, India and Australia in creative production and international engagement. She is a founding member of the South Asian collective H-ME W-RK, alongside Priya Pavri, Zainab Syed and S.Shakthidharan and holds an award-winning PhD on intersectional feminism and Indian contemporary dance.