Events & Workshops

Devi Bollywood Dance offers a diverse range of programs for colleges, schools, and communities. We focus on the arts and culture of India while inspiring participants to explore innovation within tradition. A variety of programs can be designed based on age, skill level, and interest, including: Performances, Lecture-demonstrations, Workshops, and Residencies.

Upcoming

3 Day Intensive: Back to Basics

Our 3 day intensive is open to everyone whis looking to get back into moving! We will focus on technique & conditioning for dance, building a yoga practice, body alignment, turns, hand movements, and gestures & expressions.

Friday 9/29 7-830pm

Saturday 9/30 6-730pm

Sunday 10/1 11-12:30pm

Select Option
Garba Workshop Buffalo NY

Garba Workshop

Garba is a fun, high-intensity dance form that originates from the state of Gujarat in India. Garba is done solo and involves rhythmic steps in a circular form. The steps are easy to learn, and it’s fun to watch even if you’re not the dancing type! Garba is typically done during Navratri, it is a Hindu festival, literally meaning “nine nights”. While this festival is celebrated in various ways across India, Gujarat follows the prime tradition of performing Garba dance for nine nights as a symbol of respect for the goddess. 

Friday 10/13th

 7- 8:30pm

Cost: 20 (early bird) | 30 (day of)

Select Option

Sari Wearing & 'Dole Re Dole'

Our Sari wearing class is open to everyone! In this workshop, we will learn how to drape a saree. A sari is a garment from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka that consists of yards of un-stitched stretch fabric arranged over the body. We will then learn the infamous dance steps from Dola Re Dola” a song from the 2002 Indian period romantic drama film Devdas. The song is picturized on Parvati (Aishwarya Rai) and Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit), and appears during the celebration of Durga Puja. The choreography of the song was something different as it was a mix of Indian classical dance forms. The form of dance that Saroj Khan explored with “Dola Re Dola”, is called Nautwary.

Wednesday 11/8

 6 – 8pm

Cost: 25 (early bird) | 35 (day of)

Select Option

Beginners Bhangra

Bhangra is an exciting, energetic, colorful dance form. This class will be taught by Sunny Soloman. He will go through all the fundamental moves and names to get you familiar with Bhangra dance while building a strong foundation to add Punjabi music to the movements. Modern Age Era of Bhangra has become very popular all over the world and is performed by many college teams and Universities in many world-wide competitions and shows.

Tuesdays 11/7 – 11/21

 6 – 7:30pm

Cost: $23 per class

Select Class
Dot Mandala Workshop
Vaanavil Arts and Crafts - Holiday Addition

Dot Mandala Painting

Come, join us for an evening of DOT MANDALA PAINTING🎨🖌 Dot Mandala is a beautiful, colorful and meditative art form that helps you relax, destress and concentrate. Find the artist in you with us ! 🎨 No previous art experience needed. All materials will be provided.

Wine and Snacks provided!

Friday, Nov. 17th

Time: 6:30 – 8pm

Cost: $40




Liz Holland

Gong Bath

Join us, as we embark on another meditative sound bath with gongs. Reserving your spot is HIGHLY encouraged , as we are reducing capacity for this event.

As early as 4000 B.C., gongs have been used as spiritual tools to help guide meditation. A gong produces motions and vibrations that cause frequencies of difference ranges. Scientific studies have shown the therapeutic use of sound frequencies to benefit overall health and well-being. Immersion in a full gong bath takes the participant on a journey of meditation and self-healing.

A sound bath using gongs is a meditative sonic experience, where the participant is “bathed” in sound waves from various gongs. The practice finds it’s roots in ancient cultures and Kundalini yoga and is more recently used by sound healing practitioners.
The participant can expect to be taken on a meditation journey enhanced and assisted by the frequencies of these ancient instruments. The experience will last roughly 45 minutes and led by Liz Holland, MM Percussion Performance.

Liz Holland M.M., practitioner of Ancient Alloys, has been a percussionist for her entire life. She holds a M.M. in Percussion Performance, with a focus in exploratative techniques of percussive instruments for new music. She has been features in Drum! magazine, Modern Drummer, and has toured and performed around the country many times. A native of Buffalo, NY, she is now based in Seattle, Washington.

Thursday, Nov. 30th

Time: 8:00 – 9pm

Cost: $20

Bharatanatyam Intensive
Bharatanatyam Intensive

Nitya Seshadri

This 2 day intensive will focus on the foundational movement practices of the Classical Indian Art form – Bharatanatyam. The name Bharatanatyam signifies three concepts coming together, BHA- bhaava or emotions, RA- raaga or melody/musicality and TA- taala or rhythm. The intensive will take the dancers through these three fundamental concepts through a deep dive into Kalakshetra technique of Bharatanatyam.

The dancers will get a chance to explore emotion, story-telling and rhythm through their bodies and embody movement patterns such as crisp turns, deep plies, rhythmic grounded patterns with feet, classical hand gestures and graceful angular movements that are the signature of Bharatanatyam. The intensive will culminate in choreography that will pull together all of the concepts learned, into a piece that weaves emotive story-telling along with rhythmic movement patterns.

Bio: Nitya Seshadri Vedantam is a performer-teacher-choreographer of Bharatanatyam and Modern dance. She holds a diploma in Bharatanatyam from Kalakshetra and a Master’s in Dance from Hyderabad Central University and an MFA in dance from SUNY Buffalo. She is currently an adjunct faculty at SUNY Buffalo where she teaches various courses including Global Dance Studies. She is an empanelled artiste of the Broadcasting Ministry of India. She has conducted several performances, master classes and workshops across the globe, including University at Buffalo, SUNY Fredonia, Purdue University, Ithaca College, Buffalo State College, Southern Utah University, Hyderabad Central University and MGI Mauritius. Nitya’s conference presentations include ACDA North-East Regional Conference, NYSDEA, NDEO and DSA. She has served as the graduate representative 2018-19, on the board of National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). Nitya also served as an adjunct faculty of dance at the Buffalo State College. Her dance style reflects the symbiosis between Bharatanatyam and modern dance, creating new avenues for movement exploration.

Postponed to a later date

Past Events & Workshops

Dot Mandala Painting
Vaanavil Arts and Crafts

Dot Mandala Painting

Come, join us for an evening of DOT MANDALA PAINTING🎨🖌 Dot Mandala is a beautiful, colorful and meditative art form that helps you relax, destress and concentrate. Find the artist in you with us ! 🎨 No previous art experience needed. All materials will be provided.

Wine and Snacks provided!

Wednesday, August 16th

Time: 7:00 – 9pm

Sold Out

Gaitrie Subryan and Naryan Padmanbha

Yoga and Live Sitar

The goal of this class is to strengthen the larger muscle groups of the body, building balance and stability, while incorporating the multiple benefits of a mindful yoga practice. In this class we will use physical postures (asanas), breathing exercises, and meditation to improve our overall health and wellness.
* We will have a live sitar player as a musical accompaniment.

Thursday, August 10th

Time: 7:00 – 8pm

Cost: $30

Sukanya
Sukanya Burman

Indian Contemporary

Indian Contemporary Workshop is an hour and a half long session exploring the classical movement vocabulary from Bharatanatyam, Kathak and western contemporary technique inspired and influenced by these traditions. The workshop will begin with a warm up starting with breathing, mobility drills and yoga based stretches. This will be followed by floorwork and center work, particularly looking at the concepts of body and principles of movement embedded in NatyaShastra (ancient Indian philosophy on dance, dramaturgy and movement). The participants then will be led through a dance phrase creation using the unique contemporary movement language inspired, informed, and influenced by the concepts and principles of Indian physical and performance disciplines. The workshop will culminate with building your own Indian Contemporary dance phrase and a meditative cool down routine.

Saturday, July 29th

Time: 11:00 – 12:30pm

Cost: $30

Labonee
Labonee

Kathak Workshop

Kathak Workshop will focus on:

-technique (footwork, body, spins)
-movement using space
-position/stances
-vocabulary and exercises
-understanding Indian classical rhythm
-compositions

*It is recommended to bring a notebook with you*

Find Your Beat: Bollywood & Afro-Caribbean Dance w/live drummers

In this free workshop we will focus on:

– Learn choreography from Gaitrie Subryan of Devi Bollywood and Megan Rakeepile from Mahatammoho Collective. The choreography will be an excerpt from our production “Find Your Beat”

– Afro-Caribbean and Indian/Bollywood movements, vocabulary and technique

– Discussions with drummers and choreographers about the creative process and artistic direction with this excerpt

– Rhythm, sounds, energy

This workshop is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Statewide Community Regrant (SCR) program

Holli Simme

Silk Fan Dance Class

Come learn something new or brush up on your skills! We will cover the basics of fan dance, and integrate footwork and whole-body movements to take your fan dancing to the next level. Please bring your own set of fans if possible. Extra fans will be available for practice but not for purchase.
Katak Workshop Buffalo NY