Sumedha Bhattacharyya

Sumedha is an interdisciplinary dance artist, choreographer, researcher, and dance filmmaker. She is pursuing her PhD in Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz and is currently a faculty member at the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, where she teaches Screendance and Interdisciplinary seminar courses.

She explores the intersection of performance and technology, particularly in relation to dance and camera work. A recipient of the Erasmus Mundus scholarship, she completed her Choreomundus MA in Dance Knowledge, Practice, and Heritage in Norway, France, Hungary, and the UK. With a focus on screendance filmmaking, dance anthropology, and visual ethnography, she has traveled, lived with, and collaborated with diverse forms, communities, and dance-theatre makers across local, national, and international contexts. She is also an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) awardee through Goldsmiths University, UK, for her project Water Nodes, which integrated motion capture technology with performance and intergenerational maternal memories.

Her films have been showcased both nationally and internationally, including at Tranzit House (Romania), Screen.Dance: Scotland’s Festival of Dance on Screen, San Souci Festival for Dance Cinema, Movimiento en Movimiento International Film Festival (Mexico City), Numeridanse TV (France), the International Documentary and Short Film Festival, and the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Conference (Ghana). Her notable films include Biroho (2023), Saraab (2019), and Mau (2023). As a part-time visiting faculty member at Ashoka University and a guest lecturer at Barnard College for Women, Columbia University, her teaching informs and reflects her practice.