About
To foster a supportive ecology for contemporary dance in India through creation, education, research, advocacy and dance-community building.
Gati Dance Forum is a New Delhi-based organisation founded in April 2007 to create a context and community for contemporary dance in India, at a time when its founders found there was little funding, infrastructure or audience for the form. Built around five areas of activity, creation, education, research, advocacy and community-building, Gati runs residencies, commissions, publications and the international contemporary dance festival IGNITE!, launched in 2010, and has been central to the growth of an Indian contemporary dance ecology.
Gati grew out of a 2005 meeting between the dancers Anusha Lall and Mandeep Raikhy, both recently returned from study in London, who realised there was no context in India into which to create contemporary dance. Founded in 2007 and later housed in a studio renovated with donations from the dance community, Gati established the Gati Summer Dance Residency in 2009 and the IGNITE! festival in 2010, and contributed to the development of a masters in performance practice in dance in Delhi, the first of its kind in South Asia. Under managing director Mandeep Raikhy it has become a leading advocate and incubator for contemporary dance in the country.
Gati Dance Forum is among the most important institutions for contemporary dance in India, having built much of the infrastructure, community and discourse through which the form has grown over the past two decades.
[Atlas Perspective] Profiled as an Institution (Operator) in the Dance field. Gati's residencies, festival and advocacy connect it to India's contemporary and classical dance communities, and to the choreographers it has nurtured.