barkha dance co. presents icchā

New York, NY, August 10, 2026 --(PR.com)-- In Hindu philosophy, vasanas are unfulfilled longings that survive the death of the physical body, passed down through bloodlines as living, present icchā / desire.
icchā is a new interdisciplinary solo kathak work weaving original music, film, set design, and Gujarati folk form garba. barkha, a daughter whose path has diverged dramatically from her lineage, is visited by her maternal ancestors in a dream. They choose her to express, release, and fulfill their desires: born from survival, loss, intimacy, violence, and the denial of dance and embodied selfhood.

icchā is meant to be a somatic shraadh, an ancestral reverence. The work confronts the body as a site of ancestral history, creating space within it to welcome unnamed matriarchs to breathe again and to ask ourselves what in our body might be their unfinished reaching?

Barkha Patel is a touring kathak artist, choreographer, educator and Artistic Director of Barkha Dance Company. Barkha’s work has been presented at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Little Island, 92Y, and Chelsea Factory among others. Barkha has been recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award through which she received support from the New York State Dance Force in 2024, to tour a full-evening work ahaM | Maha.

Barkha was awarded the Princess Grace Dance Award ‘24, selected as a finalist for NEFA’s NDP Finalist ‘24, and was a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow ‘24. She has been a recipient of residencies with Movement Research, NYS Choreographic Institute, and Topaz Arts. She completed her first India tour across six cities in ‘25 in collaboration with Canadian based kathak artist Tanveer Alam. Barkha currently is a recipient of the Special Projects Grant from the Princess Grace Foundation.

This residency at BMCC Tribeca PAC is part of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), which receives major support from The Howard Gilman Foundation, George S. Kaufman Charitable Foundation, and The Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Additional support is provided by the SHS Foundation, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, and the Harkness Foundation for Dance. CDI is spearheaded by The Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College. www.cuny.edu/danceinitiative

Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 212-220-1460.

BMCC Tribeca PAC is Downtown Manhattan’s premier presenter of the arts, reaching audiences from the college community, downtown residential and business communities, local schools, families, and audiences of all ages. BMCC Tribeca PAC strives to present a broad global perspective through the presentation of high-quality artistic work in music, theatre, dance, film and visual arts. BMCC Tribeca PAC is located on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus, 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich Avenue & West Street) and is convenient to the 2/3, A/C/E and R subway lines and the New Jersey Path Train. For more information please visit our website, www.tribecapac.org.