Western to Host Indian Dance Expert Padmaja Suresh for a Lecture and Performance on March 1

Western Washington University will host Padmaja Suresh, a renowned expert in classical Indian dance, for a performance and lecture on the intersections of dance and the religious philosophy knowns as Tantra at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1 in the Old Main Theater on campus.

This event is free and open to the public.

Suresh’s lecture will explore the philosophical underpinnings of Tantra, a religious tradition that influenced all Indian religions and spread throughout Southeast Asia and as far as Japan in premodern times. She will examine the mystical experience of the unity with God that Tantric diagrams and rituals sought to cause, and how such states of consciousness can be accessed and shared via the expressive tradition classical Indian dance.

Suresh received her doctorate at Mysore University in 2001, and has had a 25-year career as a teacher, performer and choreographer of Bharat natyam (classical Indian dance). She has performed and taught all over India, including for governmental dignitaries, and has taught internationally in New Zealand, Australia, Cyprus, Latvia and the U.S.

This event is sponsored by Western’s Department of Liberal Studies, with support from the Anthropology Department, the Center for International Studies, and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

For more information contact Stephanie Wanne, Western’s Department of Liberal Studies department manager, at (360) 650-3030 or Stephanie.Wanne@wwu.edu