Indian poet, journalist and dancer Tishani Doshi curates an unforgettable performance at Sharjah Performing Arts Academy. The immediacy, stillness and fluidity of Tishani Doshi’s literary inquiry into the body, a vast territory of feeling and political experience. Doshi’s poetry embraces her home in Tamil Nadu and the storied lives of women in India—gesturing to the toll of gender violence but also the sway of pleasure. Syncopated in ferocity and at times languid in rhyme, her writing signals to both magnified and subtle vibrations of the Earth and its beings. In this Artist In Focus for the 16th Sharjah Biennial, we explore her new solo choreography, Nyāsa (2024–2025). Accompanied by Dhrupad vocalist Pelva Naik and pakhawaj player Sukhad Munde, Doshi awakens divine potencies of the body with touch, adopting postures that cite ancient goddesses of fertility, seasonal festivity and martial prowess. For 15 years, Doshi performed as a dancer in well-known choreographer Chandralekha’s final work, Sharira (2001). In the vein of Chandralekha’s non-narrative performance lexicon, Nyāsa invokes the vitalising relation between women poet-dancers of two generations, immersed in ancestral place making, cosmic geometry, tantric principles and desire as self-knowledge. Nyāsa is commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation. 

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Director - Magdi Emad

Camera Operators - @ward helal, @shefeek_sha_nk, @alialfadly1  

Editor - Magdi Emad

Sound Design - @unnikrishnan.sb  

Production Manager - @dimzyb  

Assistant Director - @unnikrishnan.sb