Ashvini Sundaram

Ashvini Sundaram (pronounced uh·sh-vi-nee su-ntha-rum) is a bharatanatyam-trained dance artist and emerging choreographer who holds an MFA in Dance from York University in Toronto. Born in Singapore, raised in Vancouver and trained in India by Rama Vaidyanathan, Ashvini targets questions related to cultural identity and decoloniality. Her choreographic research on minimalism called “Art of Time” examines "cyclical time" as seen in Indian classical music, aiming to transcend normative framings of time, body, and presence as seen in Western scholarship and dance writing. Ashvini developed this research at the Dance Centre's 12 min max program with dramaturg Claire French (PhD) and three other Vancouver-based dancers with funding support from the BC Arts Council. In Dec 2022, Ashvini was a selected participant in the Dance Artists in Residence program at The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where she worked alongside contemporary dancer, Yui Ugai, to develop their duet called “home l a n d" which was presented by Dancing on the Edge Festival, Tangente, and CanAsian Dance Festival.