Ashvini Sundaram

🪔 About

Ashvini Sundaram is a Singaporean-Canadian dance artist and researcher deeply rooted in the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam. Born in Singapore, she was raised in Vancouver, Canada, and received her foundational Bharatanatyam training in Singapore from the age of two-and-a-half. Her artistic journey is influenced by a family legacy in the arts, with her paternal grandfather being a musician from Thanjavur, a significant center for South Indian performing arts. Sundaram's advanced training in Bharatanatyam took place in Delhi, where she became a dedicated disciple of the multi-award-winning dance artist, Guru Smt. Rama Vaidyanathan, known for her contemporary choreographies within the traditional canon. Sundaram's practice extends beyond performance into academic research. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in dance at York University in Toronto, focusing on systems of embodied knowledge concerning mathematics. Her artistic and research interests converge in exploring the relationship between culture, identity, and education, with a commitment to decolonization within her art form. She also trains in ballet part-time, broadening her physical technique. Her choreographic research, notably “Art of Time,” delves into “cyclical time” as observed in the Indian classical music system, aiming to transcend normative Western framings of time, body, and presence in dance scholarship. Sundaram's original works and performances often explore themes related to ancestral knowledge systems and diasporic identity, reflecting her layered cultural background between Singapore, Thanjavur, and Canada. She has performed widely across British Columbia, Canada, showcasing both her original creations and learned choreographies from her guru. Ashvini Sundaram has been recognized for her artistic achievements, receiving a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to further her Bharatanatyam training. She was also awarded a Mini Re-emergence Grant and a digital micro-commission for a project on rhythm cycles by The Dance Centre in Vancouver. In December 2022, she participated in the Dance Artists in Residence program at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, focusing on the embodied relationships between tradition, land, and ancestry. She was a commissioned choreographer for the CanAsian Dance Festival 25, presenting her work “Vasantham” in March 2022, which investigated her relationship with the Varnam, a specialized Bharatanatyam repertory item. Awards & Honours: Mini Re-emergence Grant (The Dance Centre) (2020), Digital Micro-commission (The Dance Centre) (2021), Grant from Canada Council for the Arts (2020).