Please join us in welcoming two new Dance Adjunct Faculty:
Jonathan Pattiwael and Sanchita Sharma!
Jonathan Pattiwael (they-he-dia), born in Bandung, Indonesia is a dance performer, choreographer and teacher based in Austin, Texas. An Assistant Professor of Dance at Texas State University, Jonathan is known for their performance creations as a form of resistance to navigate a relational identity on the margins of US society. Ever the critical instigator, Jonathan is interested in investigating social conditions through the creative exploration of gestures, original movement, absurdity, characters, relationships and voices to create interdisciplinary performances that break our notions of the human condition.
Holding an MFA in Dance from Texas Woman’s University, Jonathan’s work imagines a relational hybrid approach that challenges the choreographic practice as a source of performative social interactions. As a bicultural artist who lives in two different dance aesthetic disciplines (Hip-Hop and Contemporary Dance), Jonathan is proficient in turning potential trainwrecks into dynamic systems that engage both abstract and narrative encounters between the physical body and the emergent themes of marginalized peoples.
Jonathan’s choreographies have been commissioned, produced and presented by Ohio Dance Festival, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, Alternativa’s Fresh Festival, Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton Black Film Festival, Tesla’s SpaceX Station, Xavier University, Heroes Rise Street Dance Inc, Texas Woman’s University, Ohio University, the University of Dayton, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival, REST Fest by the Theorists, the Dance Project, the Urban Creative Arts and Healing Symposium, Dayton Dance Conservatory, Onyx Contemporary Dance Company and the Texas Ballet Theatre. Jonathan will premiere a 22-minute solo in Portugal this December.
Sanchita Sharma is a performing artist and a dance scholar from New Delhi, India. She is a PhD Candidate at the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, University of California, Los Angeles, where she has taught courses ranging from arts activism to community engagement. Her scholarly work sits at the intersection of Critical Dance Studies, Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, and South Asian Studies. She currently works as an Editorial Fellow for the Dance Studies Association’s journal, Conversations Across the field of Dance Studies, and supports the journal’s mission to promote decolonial and anti-racist frameworks and methodologies in dance research.
She has been an artist-in-residence at Crashbox, Rude Mechs (Austin), and at Gati Summer Dance Residency (New Delhi), and she has performed with Early Era Collective and choreographer Jahna Bobolia (Austin), interdisciplinary artist Julie Tolentino, choreographers Milka Djordjevich, Ligia Lewis, and Emily Barasch (Los Angeles). Her
choreographic work has been presented at First Street Studio (Austin), The Broad Art Center (UCLA), Maya Dance Theatre (Singapore), and Natya Ballet Center (India). Her dance film, Engage, was awarded the “Best Dance Film” at the Seoul International Short Film Festival (2021) and was officially selected at several festivals across New York, Austin, and Germany. As the new Chair of DSA’s working group, Practice-as-Research, she intends to bridge the gap between dance theory and practice.
