Artist Talk

Urja Desai Thakore is one of the UK’s leading Kathak dancers, who studied under the guidance of Kumudini Lakhia at Kadamb, Ahmedabad for over 20 years. Urja then received her BA in Kathak from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Maha Vidyalaya. She has also completed an MA in South Asian Dance with a focus on Choreography from Roehampton University.

A graceful and emotive dancer, Urja is renowned for her love of abhinaya, subtle movements, and technical strength. Furthermore, her sensitive, thought-provoking choreographic style is highly regarded by both traditionalists and modernists alike. Urja is the artistic director of Pagrav Dance Company (PDC), which she established in the UK in 2005. The company promotes Kathak, giving the form a modern context and renewed presentation while encouraging new thinking and understanding of the discipline.

Over the past twelve years, PDC has successfully toured the full-scale works “Baharan”, “Hats,” “Anant-Endless,” “I, within,” and “Detox,” nationally. Since 2016, the company has been touring “Utsav,” an evening of classical work, which features PDC’s youth ensemble. In 2007, Urja co-choreographed Akademi’s “Bells” for the Trafalgar Square Festival, an outdoor dance spectacle that brought together international talents from the UK, India and Belgium. Urja was also assistant choreographer to Kumudini Lakhia for the Swapnagata Festival curated by Akram Khan at Sadler’s Wells in 2009. In 2012, Urja was appointed artistic director of the first dance festival in Milton Keynes. In 2015 and 2017 Urja was selected as the guest choreographer for the South Asian category soloist of the first-ever BBC Young Dancer competition.

Athanasia Kanellopoulou was born in Athens in 1979. She is an independent choreographer, art director, and performer. She studied with a scholarship for classical and contemporary dance in London and New York, as well as Spanish Literature and Culture, and Traditional Lute.

For over 18 years she lived and worked in Europe with artists and companies such as Les Ballets C de la B, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (guest artist), Cocoondance, Alexandra Waierstall, GregorZoellig, In Jung Jun, Guy Weissman, Rami Levi, Jossi Berg.

Since 2008 she has developed over 18 works, presented in numerous festivals in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Her research has been affected by the evolution of ideas about female identity and in general the female figure through the past decades. She has been invited as a guest choreographer from JV2 (JasminVardimon), ZfinMalta Dance Ensemble, Sareyyet Ramallah Palestine,  Iceland Academy of Arts, University of Malta Dance Studies, and the Norwegian University of Dance.

She gives workshops for contemporary dance technique, choreography, and improvisation in companies and dance institutes in Greece and abroad such as SEAD Academy, Greenwich Dance Agency, Malta University, Seoul Arts Centre, Cairo Contemporary Dance Centre, State School of Athens ( KSOT), Iceland Academy of Arts, Garage 29 Brussels, Dance Cultural Centre, Athens, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul, among others. Since 2017 she teaches at the Greek National Opera, and in 2018 founded the company ‘’Athanasia Kanellopoulou Performing Arts.’’

Tobias has been working as a cameraman for 12 years. His experiences have been mainly with documentary as well and industrial film. Since 2018 he has been studying at the ZHdK with a Master’s focus on Arts Camera.

Luca was born in Cattolica, Italy on December 26, 1982. He started his training in 2003 at the Hangart Pesaro. He continued his studies in 2006 as a member of the Ballet Junior de Genève. Luca began his professional career in 2009 as a member of Tanz Luzerner Theater, Switzerland.

Just after landing in this world, Alicja was directly moved with bag and baggage from Poznan to Nuremberg. After her A-levels, she studied cinematography at the Polish National Film School in Lodz. She then built her base camp in Berlin and from there expanded her office space all over Germany, Europe, and the USA for film shootings. After a long back and forth between Berlin and Switzerland, Alicja finally arrived happily in the cosmopolitan Zurich where she has started another Master’s study at the ZHdK.