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Showtimes & Tickets
Oct 21 at 8:00PM
Running time: 60 mins
Single Tickets: $25.00 base fare (plus applicable fees)
Festival Pass (choose between 4-6 shows): See four or more Festival performances and save 15%! Choose from the six Festival programmes. Packages available while quantities last, so be sure to book early!
Program
Conceived and choreographed by Nova Bhattacharya, Svāhā! is a rallying cry for unity, and a celebration of life itself. A high-energy spectacle, this rich work fuses nearly 30 distinct dance traditions – from Bharatanatyam to Butoh, Jazz to Salsa – into a singular, joyful experience. A cast of 16 vibrant performers lend their individuality to an intricate and expansive choreography, creating a communal experience that answers the isolation and societal fractures of our times with jubilant defiance. Svāhā! is an event teeming with life, bursting with color, and centering the compassion of shared humanity. Its original score by tabla virtuoso Ed Hanley and dynamic lighting design by Simon Rossiter heighten the experience, making Svāhā! a compelling call for community, diversity, and collective wonder.
Svāhā! resonated with life, love, and the sheer pleasure of movement, leaving us spellbound and deeply moved. In a world seeking wholeness and abundance, this extraordinary performance provided a beacon of hope and renewal.
-Indian Summer Festival
Nova Bhattacharya is an award-winning choreographer, performer, and cultural leader whose work has helped redefine the possibilities of contemporary dance in Canada. Known for her distinctive movement language and rigorous physicality, her work emerges from diasporic experience, intercultural exchange, and a belief that dance can function simultaneously as ritual, rebellion, gathering, and care. Since founding Nova Dance in 2008, she has created more than 30 original works and collaborated with artists across disciplines and generations with Bharatanatyam serving as a vital thread throughout her work. Through her artistry and leadership, Bhattacharya has become an influential figure in shaping a more expansive vision of Canadian performance. Bhattacharya’s impact lies beyond the work itself in the ecosystems she has built around it. Through mentorship and curatorial practice, she has helped cultivate new generations of artists and audiences who see hybridity, cultural specificity, and multiplicity as central to the future of Canadian performance.
Nova Dance is a defining presence in Canadian contemporary performance, creating ambitious, genre-defying works that celebrate the power of dance to arouse the imagination. Founded in 2008 by Nova Bhattacharya, the Toronto-inspired company brings together artists, movement traditions and lived experience from the diaspora. From intimate solos and interdisciplinary collaborations to large-scale ensemble productions and land-based activations, Nova Dance crafts experiences that invite audiences into worlds of wonder, beauty, and possibility.
Renowned for technical virtuosity, vivid storytelling, and emotional resonance, the company's critically acclaimed works have been presented across Canada and internationally. Nova Dance’s repertoire celebrates the complexity of contemporary Canada while expanding the artistic canon, bringing diverse dance forms into dynamic conversation, fostering connection across communities, cultures, and generations, and affirming the capacity of art to cultivate empathy, deepen connections, and manifest more compassionate futures.
Photos of Nova Dance
Photos by Cylla Von Tiedemann, Four Eyes Portrait and Fran Chudnoff