Samanvita

My name is Samanvita Kasthuri and I am a dancer, singer, choreographer, and composer. Through my dancing, I want to practice the ancient arts of India while communciating contemporary and modern ideas through my dancing. I have been trained in the dance forms of Bharatanatyam and Kathak, and I am contintuing to experiement with other styles like contemporary, hip-hop, and jazz.

Samanvita’s first choregraphic project was presented on May 3rd, 2024 at Intersect Arts Center. This project served as her capstone project through Saint Louis University’s Theater and Dance Department, funded by the Honor’s Department ILEX grant for academic endeavors.

“What Do You Feel” interrogates the role of abhinaya—how do you construct abhinaya in dance styles other than Bharatanatyam? How would you tell a story with the specificity of mudras, facial expressions, eye movements, hand movements in a style such as hip hop? Or contemporary?

This project features dancers at Saint Louis University from SLU’s Phases of Motion and SLU Shakti to bring this vision to life.