{
  "id": 11827641,
  "title": "Mumbai-Based Shruti Maria Datar Becomes Only Indian Choreographer Selected For International Young Choreographer Project 2026 In Taiwan",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/04/mumbai-based-shruti-maria-datar-becomes-only-indian-choreographer",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-04T02:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Press Journal",
    "slug": "free-press-journal",
    "url": "https://www.freepressjournal.in/lifestyle/mumbai-based-shruti-maria-datar-becomes-only-indian-choreographer-selected-for-international-young-choreographer-project-2026-in-taiwan"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Mumbai-based contemporary dance maker and choreographer Shruti Maria Datar has been selected as one of only eight emerging choreographers globally for the International Young Choreographer Project (IYCP) 2026 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This marks the first time an Indian choreographer has been part of this year's cohort. Datar, who also received a Global South Scholarship for her MA in Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism at London Contemporary Dance School, is known for her deep research and clarity of thought. Her work explores themes such as societal expectations placed on bodies, what memories and inheritances our bodies hold, and whose labor and knowledge get valued and erased. Datar's IYCP residency in Taiwan involved working with Taiwanese dancers on a piece called \"Strands of Duty,\" which delves into the invisible labor often performed by women in patriarchal societies. Through her MA studies in London and research in Mumbai, Datar aims to interrogate power dynamics, knowledge production, and the living, embodied archive of community. She observes that women carry much of the cultural labor and knowledge, with their bodies becoming physical repositories of cultural duties. During her time in Taiwan, Datar shifted her focus from gendered labor to exhaustion as a cultural phenomenon, particularly in capitalist societies. She sees exhaustion as a shared experience and a cultural construct, rather than an inherent product of individual circumstances. In her research on Mumbai's East Indian community, Datar challenges colonial assumptions about culture and memory, viewing them as constantly producing and redefining themselves in the present moment. This work has led her to see the city of Mumbai not as a fixed geography, but as a complex accumulation of memories, communities, land, and histories.",
  "summary": "Shruti Maria Datar—a Mumbai-based contemporary dance maker, choreographer, arts researcher, and educator—approaches her work with deep research and rare clarity of thought. She has a precise conception of her artistic journey, one that defies easy categorisation. Careful to interrogate every conclusion she reaches, Datar grounds her practice in clear artistic values. The year 2026 has been a…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}