NCPA Presents Spectrum 2026 – A Festival of Dances from Around the World

Spectrum has, over the years, become a space where diverse movement vocabularies coexist—where classical forms are re-examined through individual artistic voices and contemporary works explore new relationships between body, space and sound. The 2026 edition reflects this balance through a programme that features Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak and international contemporary dance, alongside a pedagogical masterclass for students and practitioners.

The festival opens on Friday, January 30, at the Tata Theatre with a double-bill featuring Bahukriya, a Bharatanatyam presentation by Rama Vaidyanathan and troupe, followed by Khańkhanā – The Sound of Dancing Feet, an Odissi ensemble work by Surupa Sen and the Nrityagram ensemble. While firmly grounded in classical frameworks, both works reflect the artistes’ long-standing engagement with form as a living practice. Vaidyanathan, who has trained under eminent gurus and now shapes her own pedagogy, is known for evolving an individual movement language without departing from Bharatanatyam’s structural rigour. Sen, the first graduate of Nrityagram, brings to the stage an Odissi sensibility informed by decades of training, choreographic research and ensemble-building.

On Saturday, February 14, the spotlight shifts to Odissi and Kathak through performances by Ratikant Mohapatra with Srjan in Ānanda-Rasam – The Essence of Bliss, and Shama Bhate’s institution Nadroop in Ram Lalla. Mohapatra’s work reflects over four decades of institution- building and choreographic practice that has shaped Odissi’s contemporary trajectory, while Bhate’s Kathak is informed by a lifetime of performance, teaching and musical training rooted in the Jaipur tradition.

The festival concludes on Sunday, February 22, at the Experimental Theatre with BRICKS, a Swiss contemporary dance production by choreographer Nicole Morel, with music by Colombian composer Violeta Cruz. Conceived as a work of physical poetry, BRICKS combines sculptural visual design with movement to explore structure, space and human presence, offering a contrasting international perspective within the festival’s broader dance landscape.

Extending the festival beyond performance, Spectrum 2026 also includes two masterclasses presented as part of the NCPA’s Nrityagurukul initiative. The first is a two-day masterclass by Surupa Sen on January 28 and 29, supported by Bank of America, titled Techniques for Longevity in an Indian Dance Career. Emerging from Sen’s long and sustained engagement with Odissi as a living practice, the session reflects on longevity as the careful cultivation of the dancer’s relationship with body, mind and form over time, and is open to practitioners across Indian classical dance traditions.

This is followed by Orchestrating Stillness and Movement: Sthāna, Gati, and the Dynamic Function of Cārīs in the Dancer-Actor’s Training, a two-day Marga Natya masterclass by Piyal Bhattacharya on February 18 and 19, which examines stillness and movement as foundational conditions of performance, situating the body as a site of integration where breath, consciousness and motion converge.