Choreographer, Director, Filmmaker, Poet, Educator, and Performance Studies Scholar
Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren is an Indian-American hard-of-hearing choreographer, director, educator, and Performance Studies scholar. Her transdisciplinary artistic research focuses on performance, ecology, disability, and heritage in order to develop new approaches to accessible eco-theatres.
Kanta’s work focuses on:
Current &
Recent Projects
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In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains, which draws on Contemporary Dance, Kutiyattam, Poothan Thira, and Kalaripayattu, focuses onthe beauty and fragility of our mountains while it sheds light on the pressing challenges of climate change. The work tells the story of a Walker and his journey to collect mountain stories from across India and the US before it is too late.
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As a key part of the BRM Project 2023, a research residency program took place in collaboration with the revered Guru Kalamandalam Rama Chakyar. Under his expert guidance, Dr. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren's immersion in Kutiyattam, a transformative journey, has focused on the significance of stories about mountains within the classical performance form. On 22 July 2024 Dr. Kanta performed "Govardhanodharanam” at the Palunkil Shiva Narayana Temple, Killimangalam. Subsequent performances are planned for 2025.
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Towards a Different Earth (TDE), a collaboration on an Accessible Eco-Theatres Arts Residency, connected college youth, Deaf/Hard-of-hearing and Blind/VI communities, service providers for Indian Sign Language (ISI) and Audio Description, and theatre practitioners in Thrissur, India, with experts in Accessible Theatres. The Residency included: 1) A Webinar Series on Accessible Eco-Theatres; 2) In-person mixed ability workshops for diverse participants and selected theatre professionals focused on the co-creation of an accessible theatre work on mountains and climate change; 3) A public showing (with live-streaming) of the theatre work, and 4) A webinar which showcased our “how-to” documentary film.
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South Asian Disability and Deaf Theatres investigates translocal intimacies in relation to 21st century transnational South Asian disability theatres in order to lay out new possibilities for accessible theatres.
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The wanderer, the pirate, and the ear of the other: Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren in conversation with Brandon LaBelle.
How is hearing differently activated? How are hearing difference, wandering, disability, and ecology connected? Why do these matter? How does the pirate provide certain input into conceiving approaches to learning and pedagogy?
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Artist
Scholar
