By Margaret Kaiser and Mia Ciechalski

When the Jamestown Dance Festival debuts on Friday, it will reflect the results of a journey from Kolkata, India, to the Chautauqua County city. 

The three-day festival is bringing to town major dance troupes that combine together global and contemporary dance forms. 

Sukanya Burman, the artistic director of Sukanya Burman Dance in Jamestown, said she created the festival to create a platform  where people could “explore the richness of various dance traditions from around the world.”

The festival will include dance workshops, performances and a film screening. 

This festival aims to showcase global dance genres through unique collaborations with many different dancers, artists and musicians. 

There will be Indian classical dance forms of Kathak and Bharatanatyam, contemporary modern, and a fusion of Flamenco and contemporary  dance on tap.

For Burman, the path to the festival started in Kolkata (formerly called Calcutta), where she started learning classical southern Indian dance Bharatanatyam as a perhaps overly energetic 3-year-old — even though Kolkata is in the northeastern part of the country. 

“I had to carry forward an art form that has centuries of history and culture woven into it,” Burman said. “This form is almost 3,000 years old; it even dates with with earliest traces found in the ruins of the Indus Valley civilization dating back to 3300 BC. … So that was a huge responsibility for me to carry it forward, but also remain true to myself.”

Hence the combination of traditional dance with contemporary in this festival. 

Alongside Sukanya Burman Dance (Indian diasporic dances and modern dance), Barkha Dance Company (Indian Kathak), Soles of Deunde (tap, Flamenco, and Kathak), BioDance (contemporary)  and Sandip Mallick (Kathak) will also be at the festival, hosting workshops and performing. The lineup includes multiple Bessies award-winners and nominees (the Bessies are New York City’s top dance awards). 

Burman said she sought out dancers who embody authenticity in their craft, who are pushing boundaries while staying deeply rooted in their traditions and identities. 

“I looked for performers who are very much like myself, view dances more than just movement or entertainment, but more as a way to challenge norms to connect with, maybe their heritage or identity or social issues,” said Burman. “Each artist, each performer has a unique story to tell. 

“The general public and community are not very familiar, or have a lot of misconceptions about it … There’s a gap there which needed to filled, and I felt the Jamestown Dance Festival is the perfect platform to present it.

“The driving essence of this festival is bridging the gap between cultures and people. I deeply believe that dance has the power to break down barriers, to inspire empathy and to spark dialogue.” 

Burman got support from New York State Dance Force through the New York State Council of the Arts, the Chautauqua Regional Community Foundation, the Sheldon Foundation, Live Chautauqua and Wegmans. 

“They all recognized the importance of dance as a tool to bring the community together as well as create that cultural discourse, so with their support, we created this festival,” Burman said.

Here is the schedule of events: 

Friday, Sept. 6:
Film screening – “Obsessed with Light” Screening – Jamestown Community College, Student Union Room – 5-6:30 p.m. (free event)

Saturday, Sept. 7:

Workshop – Soles of Duende – Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet–  3-4:30 p.m. 
Performance – BioDance + Barkha Dance Company – Reg Lenna Center for the Arts – 7-9:15 p.m. 

 Sunday, Sept. 8 

Workshop – Barkha Dance Company – Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet – 10-11:30 a.m.
Performance – Sandip Mallick + Sukanya Burman Dance + Soles of Duende – Reg Lenna Center for the Arts – 4-7 p.m.

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