Presented as part of the Indian Summer Festival and created by award-winning dancer and choreographer Sujit Vaidya, OFF CENTRE is a stunning and provocative dance performance. Two dancers – Sujit Vaidya and Arun Mathai – work in marvellous harmony and tension as they mirror each other, draw closer and then are pulled apart, as if two parts of one being searching for itself. The dancers work with and around the live percussion of master drummer Curtis Andrews. This is a powerful, honest and vivid work that takes control of narratives around eroticism, intimacy, gender and the gaze on the queer body.

Sujit’s work is deeply rooted in his training and experience as a classical Bharatanatyam dancer. As a queer artist of colour, his work questions the narrative and relevance of non-inclusive traditional texts. In OFF CENTRE, he asks the question: how can one express a queer identity within a traditional dance form?

This question will be pursued and expanded in a special post-show talk with Sujit, who will be in conversation with internationally renowned dancer and choreographer Lee Su-Feh, recipient of the Isadora Duncan Award, among others. They will speak of dance, and the role of the artist in society to question, push boundaries, and fight prejudice, while still remaining deeply rooted.