Theiya Connect
This is our support programme for South Asian Arts Practitioners. Currently in its development stages, it is created to provide mentoring and producing support for individual choreographers, financial and administrative support to educators, and create performance and community engagement opportunities for practitioners.
In Spring/Summer of 2024, we ran a project as part of Theiya Connect called ‘Co|Labs'. The purpose of this initiative was offer artists with an existing practice rooted in South Asian Arts the professional development opportunity to come together for a new creative collaboration and to co-deliver community engagement sessions in one of 3 geographical locations in Edinburgh.. We hope to make this an ongoing program aimed particularly at supporting artists of South Asian Art backgrounds who are working to establish their name in the industry.
The 3 artist pairings selected in this first round of collaborations were offered funded, supportive spaces and guidance to create new artistic work and engage with the local community showcasing and sharing their artform and craft through both performance and workshop activities.
In 2023, we supported writer/director Dr. Agomoni Ganguli Mitra in the production of
'What Draupadi Said to Penelope' and its subsequent sell-out Edinburgh Festival Fringe run.
'What Draupadi Said to Penelope' is a multi-artform, feminist retelling of Greek and Indian epics through spoken word, movement and music. It imagines a meeting between Penelope from Homer’s Odyssey and five characters from the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. The project is currently at the making and touring stage and includes a cast of professional and South Asian Diaspora artists, including dancers, musicians, singers and actors.