Brampton based Nautanki Creations is thrilled to present SMITTEN AND STARSTRUCK – a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, one day virtual festival featuring artists from Canada and India on Sunday, August 08 at 10am EST. The festival will also be available for viewing online one week after the premiere.

Smitten and Starstruck is a culmination of two programs – Artist Date Series and Moved Dance Series.

The Artist Date Series was created in direct response to the challenges faced by India during the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis. The series strives to rejuvenate our artist communities and to encourage and facilitate cross-cultural collaboration and understanding between artists in India and Canada. Through the series, we have “matched” 8 artists in India with 8 artists in Canada for one month of creative collaboration.

70% of the applications we received for the Artist Date Series were from dancers based in India. As our team consists of two dancers, Ankita Alemona and Nidhi Baadkar, we were passionate about creating a space to include the incredible work of these artists. “Moved - Dance Series” thus features 6 phenomenal dance and movement/theatre artists from India.

Ankita Alemona, who is the Co-Creator of the Festival, is a dance and theatre artist, Kalaripayattu practitioner, producer, director and arts educator. She has over ten years of professional experience working in the arts and culture sector in Toronto and various cities in India. She has developed and facilitated education programming for highly renowned organizations such as Soulpepper Theatre Company, Canadian Stage Company and Steppenwolf Theatre Company.

Nidhi Baadkar is a professional dancer and movement artist with 15 years of training in Bharatnatyam and currently pursuing her Contemporary dance training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. She is an alumnus of Attakalari Centre, India and IIPA, Bahrain. She has worked and performed in Bahrain, Canada and India.

Nautanki Creations presents

Smitten and Starstruck

A cross-cultural, cross disciplinary, one day virtual festival featuring 22 artists from Canada and India.

August 08, 2021 

Ticket prices: By Donation, PWYC

Online – Register at:

www.eventbrite.com