Natasha Bakht
Arts & Expression, South Asian, Dance
Natasha Bakht is an Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer. She trained in bharata natyam under Menaka Thakkar for over 20 years, touring internationally with her company. For three seasons, she danced with the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company in London, England, renowned for its groundbreaking work in Indian contemporary dance. She has also worked with choreographers Yvonne Coutts, Joan Phillips, Wayne McGregor and Robert Desrosiers and has appeared in their works in a variety of festivals including several Kalanidhi Festivals and the Canada Dance Festival.
Natasha has collaborated with Montreal's Roger Sinha on three pieces. Her own choreography includes a group piece, Riaz, for the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company and four solos for herself entitled Dance If You Must, Appropriating Edges, Obiter Dictum and White Space. Obiter Dictum was nominated for a 2003 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Choreography.
In 2008, Natasha was the co-recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artists Award, which is presented to individual artists in Ontario who have begun to produce a body of work and are starting to make a significant mark in their field. Natasha has been described as "a brilliant diamond" (The Dance Current, 2005), and as being "all honed to the bone elegance and precision" (Vancouver Sun, 2004).
Critical Reviews
"Bakht's performance gave
an inkling of the powerhouse that she is. With a body that moves
with innate grace, a dynamism that blurs the gap between the
possible and the impossible in its exploration of spaces and
a vigour that is not encountered often, she fired up the stage…"
– Kathakali Jana, Hindustan Times, January 17, 2008
"La précision
de la gestuelle, l'extrême épure de l'architecture
chorégraphique, le mélange improbable mais réussi
de l'élégance aérienne et de la puissance
tellurique de l'interprétation, la perfection physique
et l'aura de beauté de la danseuse, tout cela laisse littéralement
sans souffle."
– Aline Apostolska, La Presse, Décembre 2007
"Mais dans ce déferlement
de rafinement, la nouvelle création de Bakht présentée
en grande première, White Space-une réflexion sur
la blancheur-,séduit par son dépouillement énigmatique,
son approche plus déconstruite et sa dramaturgie subtile."
– Frédérique Doyon, Le Devoir, Décembre
2007
"Malgré l'extrême
sophistication de sa danse tout en angles et en précisions,
celle-ci dégage une douce sensualité qui prend
sa source dans la pudeur et al concentration."
– Frédérique Doyon, Le Devoir, Décembre
2007
"Shobana Jeyasingh's solo
features the exquisite dancing of Natasha Bakht…The stunning
Bakht, replete with gorgeous long legs and arms, is supple, elastic
and precise, and the choreographer has utilized the dancer's
strength in creating the quirky and unpredictable Triptych Self…In
short, Jeyasingh has created an homage to a perfect body, but
one in which the mind is in a whirl. It is, in fact, this feeling
of restless energy that elevates Triptych Self from pure dance
to the agony and ecstasy of being a modern-day woman."
– Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, February 26, 2005
"Bakht is all honed to
the bone elegance and precision."
– Deborah Meyers, Vancouver Sun, July 28, 2004
"Bakht the gifted technician…is
cool, poised and elegant. She uses her body with surgical precision,
every gesture, every step, cuts cleanly and exquisitely through
the air."
Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, December 14, 2002
"The sensational Bakht
can toss off pure bharatanatyam with ease, as well as tackling
anything that is thrown her way. She has an elastic body and
a surgically precise technique."
– Paula Citron, The Globe and Mail, December 24, 2002
"…the combination
of delicacy and power, reserve and boldness, assertion and grace
in her dancing speak not only of her own history but of a whole
changing art form."
Judith Mackrell, The Guardian, April 23, 1997
"Uncompromising yet graceful,
Natasha is made of steel and skin…"
– Shreela Ghosh, Aditi Magazine, March 1995
