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Swati Bhise

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Swati Bhise
Born (1959-10-21) 21 October 1959 (age 65)
Bombay, Bombay State, India
Occupation(s)Bharatanatyam dancer, educator, producer, writer, director and promoter of the arts

Swati Bhise (née Gupte; born 21 October 1959) is a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, educator, producer,[1] director, writer and promoter of the arts.[2]

Dance career

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Swati is the first disciple of Sonal Mansingh, a Padma Vibhushan awardee.[3] Since her debut performance at the Center of Indian Classical Dances in New Delhi, she has performed extensively around the world at venues including the National Centre for the Performing Arts (India), Lincoln Center,[4] Asia Society, Symphony Space, Metropolitan Museum of Art, SPIC MACAY, and the House of Soviet Culture, among others.[5] Some of her more notable performances have been for the 40th anniversary of the United Nations General assembly,[6] the unveiling of Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso's new mesh designs for Tiffany & Co, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art for the opening of the South Asian Sculpture Wing.[5] Swati also worked on the Indian choreography[7] for Thomas Mann’s The Transposed Heads, adapted by Sidney Goldfarb and Julie Taymor.[8] Swati was featured in a CBS documentary called 'Sacred Arts', as one of the foremost performers in her field.[9]

Educator

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Swati served as an artist in residence at the Brearley School, New York City, from 1991 to 2006[10] and founded the non-profit Sanskriti Center for Indian arts in education for children and adolescents.[11] She continues to teach for The Curriculum in Arts Program at Symphony Space[12] and has been a Lincoln Center Institute repertory artist since 1996.[5] She has also performed at hundreds of public and private schools, colleges, and universities across The United States including Columbia University, New York University, University of Texas at Austin, St. Mark's School of Texas, The Dalton School, The Brearley School, The Chapin School, Brooklyn College, and Wesleyan University.[5] On March 13, 2023, Swati Bhise was one of the presenting speakers at UN's NGO CSW67 Forum on Right to an Inclusive, Safe and Secure Digital Existence for Women and Girls.[13]

Theater and film production

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In 2012, Swati founded The Sadir Theater Festival, a three- day festival that takes place annually in Goa, India.[14] Critically acclaimed theater stars including Lilette Dubey, Girish Karnad, Rajat Kapoor, Mohammad Ali Baig, and Vikram Kapadia have all participated over the years, and she is still the festival's artistic director.[15] Swati also brought the UNESCO heritage art form Kunqu opera, one of the oldest styles of Chinese theatre, to India for the first time with performances at The National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, and at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.[16] In 2014, Swati founded a film production company called Cayenne Pepper Productions[1] after serving as Executive Producer and Indian cultural consultant[17] on The Man Who Knew Infinity, an Edward R Pressman film starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2015.[18]

Swati recently finished directing a British / Indian self-written period drama set in 19th century India. The film The Warrior Queen of Jhansi released in theatres in November 2019 in the US, Canada and India.'[19]' The film was the first Hollywood action film in history with a brown female lead and received the “Impact Award” at the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival Archived 17 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine and the prestigious The ReFrame Stamp for demonstrating gender parity[20] Her daughter Devika Bhise played the titular role.[21]

Swati has sat on numerous panels including the five-member grand jury at the 9th annual Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) alongside Shabana Azmi, Sushma Seth, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and Utkarsh Mazumdar.[22] She is also the co-author of the book Aai's Recipes: Traditional Indian cuisine from Maharashtra, a collection of Chandraseniya Kayasthan Prabhu (CKP) recipes, along with her mother Usha Gupte.[23]

Swati Bhise received Leadership Award from Arts4All Foundation for her Excellence In Leadership And Service on Oct 30th 2022.

Swati Bhise received Asia Arts Game Changer Award from Asia Society for Arts Visionary on March 8, 2023.[24]

Personal life

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Swati currently lives in New York and Goa with her husband, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Bharat Bhisé, her mother, and their four dogs. (Two Dobermans & Two Boxers)

Choreographies

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Philanthropy

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Swati is an outspoken advocate for women's empowerment with a focus on South Asia.[31] She is a Lotus Circle[32] advisor for The Asia Foundation, a "nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia".[33]

Inspired from her film The Warrior Queen of Jhansi, in November 2021, Swati Bhise launched "The Warrior Queen Project," a nonprofit foundation geared to empower Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Women to become warrior queens. The project is projected to launch in early 2022.

References

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  1. ^ a b "'The Man Who Knew Infinity' to open Zurich". Screendaily.com.
  2. ^ "Mother's recipes for you". Indiatimes.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  3. ^ "Centre for Indian Classical Dances | SonalMansingh". Archived from the original on 18 May 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  4. ^ "Swati G. Bhise in East Indian Classical Dance". Backstage.com. 20 November 2001. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d "Interview - Swati Bhise, an ambassador of Bharatanatyam in NYC by Lalitha Venkat". Narthaki.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  6. ^ Makhijani, Vishnu. "Indian American danseuse brings Chinese opera to India - Diaspora". Thesouthasiantimes.info. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  7. ^ Theater, Lincoln Center. "The Transposed Heads - Who's Who - Lincoln Center Theater". Lincoln Center Theater. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  8. ^ Gussow, Mel (November 1986). "STAGE: 'TRANSPOSED HEADS'". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  9. ^ "TV Special Showcases Arts Within Religion". cbsnews.com. 19 April 2007. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d Heyman, Marshall (14 December 2015). "Dancing to a Traditional Indian Beat". Wsj.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Out & About". The New York Sun. Archived from the original on 31 March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Symphony Space - Asian Studies". Symphonyspace.org. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  13. ^ "CSW 67: Right to an Inclusive, Safe and Secure Digital Existence for Women and Girls". CSR India. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
  14. ^ "Return of the Sadir Theatre Festival". The Navhind Times. 7 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  15. ^ "Sadir Theatre Fest to kick off on March 18". The Times of India. 8 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  16. ^ Sandhu, Veenu (29 November 2014). "The Peony Pavilion: With (ancient) love from China". Business Standard India. Business Standard. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  17. ^ "Interview with The Man Who Knew Infinity's executive producer Swati Bhise". Msn.com. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  18. ^ "TIFF: 'Man Who Knew Infinity' Director Says Film Was "10 Years in the Making"". Hollywoodreporter.com. 17 September 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  19. ^ "The Warrior Queen of Jhansi (2019) - IMDb". IMDb.
  20. ^ "Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi at VIWFF 2019". 26 February 2019. Archived from the original on 10 July 2020. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  21. ^ "Rani of Jhansi's story gets Hollywood rendition". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  22. ^ "9th Annual Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards Announced - Manoj Omen, MD Pallavi & More!". Broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 1 September 2018.
  23. ^ Usha Gupte, Swati Bhise (2012). Aai's Recipes: Traditional Indian cuisine from Maharashtra. Merge Corporation. ISBN 978-0615676074.
  24. ^ "2023 Asia Arts Game Changer Awards". Asia Society. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  25. ^ "Srishti - Peg's List". Pegslist.wordpress.com. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  26. ^ Ross, Alex (23 October 1993). "Classical Music in Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  27. ^ "Indo-American Arts Council, Inc". Iaac.us. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  28. ^ "Performing Arts: Year in Review 2002 - Dance | Britannica.com". Archived from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  29. ^ "Indo-American Arts Council, Inc". Iaac.us. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  30. ^ "Grammy Lifetime Award Winner George Wein Presented a Newport Jazz Festival Extra "A Bridge Together," Connecting Jazz, African Beats and Indian Carnatic music". 14 August 2017.
  31. ^ "The freedom to BE in Independent India - Think Geek Media". Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  32. ^ "Swati Bhisé - The Asia Foundation". Asiafoundation.org. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  33. ^ "About the Asia Foundation - The Asia Foundation". Asiafoundation.org. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
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