Sunena Gupta Presents:
Umeed: Colors of Hope
Telling the story of self-image, chronic illness, and mental health through Kathak dance
January 25, 4:30pm at Z Space
“Umeed” is the Hindi word for “Hope”. Sunena Gupta brings to you a unique contemporary concept produced in the Indian classical dance form, Kathak. She tells the story of the journey of a young girl navigating her way through struggles with mental health, chronic illness and self-image issues. Through the artistic theme of colors, she compares her emotions of happiness, anger, fear, sadness, love and hope to the perception of different shades of colors. Sunena visions that with the telling of this story of hope, she can urge those who have lived this journey to hold out a helping hand, and those who are struggling to take one.
The production had its debut in Sunena’s hometown, Singapore, in August 2018 and has since been performed in London, New York and many major cities around India. It demonstrates the versatility of Kathak, as the performance entails pure raags, fusion music, western percussion, and sufi music. Sunena is currently a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, and will be supported by dancers from Nazakat at Berkeley, UC Berkeley’s premier kathak team.
