Our Mission

Artistic Mandate:

(a)To create new original works in both traditional and contemporary settings and perform them widely in home seasons and touring;

(b) To nurture both the art form and the creativity of company dancers through research and experimentation of new ideas and approaches in choreographic laboratories, workshops, and master classes and showcasing their new works;

(c) To explore commonalities between Indian dance, Western dance, and other world dance cultures and evolve new choreography blending other forms of dance, music and theatre;

(d)To develop collaborations, partnerships, and network with other dance artists, companies, and presenters;

(e) To maintain a strong link between the Nrtyakala Dance School and the company and widen the training base of company dancers through intensive residencies in a variety of movement vocabularies and body conditioning; (f) To widely disseminate Indian dance experience through community outreach activities at community events and community venues such as museums, libraries, and schools.

(g) To create and produce works for young audiences and school residencies.

(h) To present emerging dancers and visiting artists in a Studio Series of dance and lecture-demonstrations.

About MENAKA THAKKAR DANCE

The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company is known as Canada’s Premier Indian Dance Company not only because it was the first professional Indian dance company to receive funding from the Canada Council but also because of its reputation for excellence in dance exhibited in the quality of dancing and the groundbreaking choreographic work of Menaka Thakkar.

The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company is well-known internationally and across Canada and in Toronto through annual touring nationally and an annual home seasons. In 2012-2013, Artistic Director Menaka Thakkar was honoured with the two major Canadian awards given to an artist in dance - The Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Arts and the Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement.

The Menaka Thakkar Dance Company is the only Canadian company with a large ensemble of home-grown dancers who are graduates of our school. Our company dancers are skilled in many different Indian dance and western dance styles.

MENAKA THAKKAR DANCE

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