Meghna Bhardwaj (b. 1987) is a dance artist and academic originally from New Delhi, India. Her practice involves movement, materials, text, video, and installation. In 2021, she began her ongoing research Yarning, in which she is focussed on themes of motherhood, thresholds, and feminine fantasies\loiterings, explored through knitting gestures and dance. For Meghna, her constant motivation behind this research is to draw and redraw her roots to her mother, and challenge the notion of ‘borders’ by employing yarn as a tool for erasable lines or playgrounds. Her works attempt to comment on the politics of the site and the city, and navigate questions of spatial freedom through embodied narratives of mapping, crossing, leaping, and gathering.
Meghna has been a choreographer-in-residence at Kunsthaus Helleweg, NRW, K3 Tanzplan, Kampnagel, Germany; Contemporary Performing Arts Research Residency, The Esplanade, Singapore (2022); ARTEFACT#2 Creative Residency, Dance Nucleus, Singapore (2021); Choreolab, World Dance Alliance, Singapore (2015), Gati Summer Dance Residency, New Delhi (2015); American Dance Festival, WDA, China (2014); Marameo, Berlin (2013); Dance Journey Program, Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company, Israel (2014); and Taipedia Dance Festival, Taiwan (2011). She began her dance career in the year 2005 at The Danceworx Performing Arts Academy, New Delhi where she also taught and performed as part of the repertory company. Additionally, she did a year-long training in Bharatanatyam at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi. She has danced for Ahn Ae-soon, ex-director of Korean National Contemporary Dance Company, and Indian choreographer and activist Mandeep Raikhy. Meghna’s works have been shown at Tanzhochdrei Festival Kampnagel, India Week Hamburg, 4Bid Gallery Amsterdam, In-Motion Chicago Dance Film Festival, March Dance Chennai, Attakkalari Biennial Bangalore, Dance Round Table 2018 Taiwan, and Dance Bridges Festival, Kolkata. She has been an Inlaks artist-in-residence at FACETS, Attakkalari Biennial 2017, Bangalore; and has received several tuition-fee off scholarships from World Dance Alliance, Asia Pacific between 2011 and 2015.
In 2019, Meghna received her Doctorate in Theatre and Performance Studies, at School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has taught as Assistant Professor at Shiv Nadar University, and delivered guest lectures and workshops at Schule Fur Schauspiel, Hamburg; Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ashoka University, Delhi-NCR; and Presidency University, Kolkata. Meghna has presented her scholarly papers at various international conferences such as IFTR, Stockholm 2016, ICTM, Bangkok 2019, and Mellon-Crisis of Democracy Summer School, Dubrovnik, 2019. She has published her scholarly work in peer-reviewed national and international journals as well as dance magazines and reports.
Meghna expresses her gratitude for: