Base Residency Entry Point: Ankita Sharma
Seattle, WA
Base Residency Entry Point: Ankita Sharma
DESCRIPTION
Please join us at Base on Saturday, May 11 at 7:30pm for Ankita Sharma's performance of dhoka/Betrayal/ followed by a short talkback.
dhoka/Betrayal/ entangles Hindu goddess Kali's ultimate power and destruction with present-day authoritarianism and religious violence, using myth to unpack how Hinduism has been shaped into propaganda for ethno-nationalism by Western influence. Tracing Kali's deification, dhoka accompanies her transformation into a colonized, fetishized, destructive image that upholds violence with her bloodied tongue. The work lives at the fringes of reality, letting the epic and human dance together: a physical look at how worship can distort what something stands for and how worship can save.
Content Warning: Full nudity, blood effects, sexual and violent content
Space is limited– please reserve a free ticket in advance. Masks are encouraged, but not required at Base.
Ankita Sharma is an experimental performance artist invested in world-making where content dictates genre and betrays expectation. Their often radical, demanding creations unpack systems and symptoms of power from a queer, punk solidarity-based lens that rehearses freedom in body and mind. In aesthetic, their work is grungy, confrontational, and cheeky, a dance-horror, with physicality rooted in contemporary dance-theater and South Asian and African diasporic forms. For Ankita, performance audiences are agentive, sitting with and challenging discomfort in environments where sophistication and blasphemy collide.
Ankita's work has been shown at venues across the US, including Denver Art Museum, Dixon Place, Abrons Arts Center, JACK, Ormao, The Basement, The Tank, Chelsea Factory, University Settlement, and LaGuardia Performing Arts. Currently in residence at BASE and GALLIM, they have previously received support from Performance Project, ECS, LEIMAY, Crown-Goodman, and more. They hold degrees in Dance and Anthropology and have trained under artists such as Eiko Otake, Rosy Simas, Sorah Yang, Rennie Harris, Hofesh Shetcher, and Pallavi Sriram. In their spare time, they manage several award-winning dance-theater companies, including Sleep No More.
Accessibility at Base:
The Factory has a ramped entrance located at the north end of the building (through the orange door); the southern entrance of the building is only accessible by stairs. The building has limited outside lighting and can be difficult to navigate and locate when its dark out.
Once inside, Base is accessible by ramp through our front doors. Please note that Base is not a scent-free space. The Factory has two gender neutral multi-stall restrooms and two single stall restrooms that are wheelchair accessible.
Because we share a building with other studios, there are often industrial noises throughout the building and heavy machinery operated such as forklifts.
Any additional accessibility needs/requests for the show? Reach out to shann@thisisbase.org
Photo provided by Samovar Film Productions
[Image Description: A seething, icy performance image from dhoka/Betrayal/. Ankita, playing Kali, gazes coldly out into the distance while adorned with a heavy beaded necklace, a leathery gladiator skirt, and black knee pads. They gesture with one hand's thumb raised and the other flat out in front of their body. Blood runs down their forehead and dribbles from their mouth. Behind them, a man in a black kurta kneels, bloodied hands in a prayer.]
