Founder & Artistic Director
Anjal Chande is a choreographer, composer, writer, teacher, and performer who innovates and introspects through multidisciplinary dance. A current recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, she recently returned to the States after researching urban arts communities in Berlin, Germany, through the U.S. Fulbright Program.
Described by The New York Times as a “gifted stylist” and by Time Out Chicago as “arrestingly poetic” and “breaking out of the box of ethnic dance,” Chande is paving new pathways as a contemporary bharatanatyam artist. In 2007, she founded Soham Dance Space, a nonprofit arts organization in Chicago, which she leads with an expansive vision of the possibilities for Indian dance and creativity at large.
Chande makes dance-theater performances grounded in an improvisational practice and a foundation in the bharatanatyam art form. Driven by an appreciation for self-reliance, Chande writes her own prose and composes music in tandem with her dance-making. Her work invites audiences to experience the versatility of bharatanatyam dance and ignites imaginations with possibilities for its practice and development.
Chande has performed at venues and festivals around the world, including Sophiensaele in Berlin, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, West Wave Dance Festival in San Francisco, Drive East in New York City, the World Music Festival in Chicago, Dazzle Jazz Club in Denver, Nrtya Sura Bharati Festival at Chinmaya Vibhooti in Pune, National Centre for the Performing Arts and National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, and Brahma Gana Sabha, Narada Gana Sabha, German Hall, and Chinmaya Heritage Center in Chennai.
She is the recipient of awards from the Chicago Dancemakers Forum, U.S. Fulbright Program, Ragdale Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and Illinois Arts Council. She has collaborated with numerous artists, including renowned sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, Karl Olson, Jesse Hunter, Aakash Mittal Quartet, David Ofori-Amoah, University of Illinois Chai-Town A Cappella Choir, Arjun Venkataswamy, Gaurav Venkateswar, and multiple classical Carnatic orchestras.
Chande grounds her commitment to innovation and artistic evolution in years of multi-disciplinary study with masterful teachers. She is a disciple of bharatanatyam exponent Hema Rajagopalan, having trained and performed extensively with Natya Dance Theatre, Chicago. She also studied nattuvangam and abhinaya under renowned gurus of India: Seetaram Sarma of Kalakshetra, Indira Kadambi, Jayanthi Subramaniam, and Bragha Bessell. She is a proficient percussionist and tabla player and learned under Raju Deshmukh and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the Ali Akbar College of Music.
Chande is a lifelong student of Vedantic philosophy and the Sanskrit language through the teachings and inspiration of Swami Chinmayananda. She is a Yoga Alliance certified teacher, having completed Moksha Yoga Chicago’s teacher training program, and holds a degree in Food Politics and Sociology from New York University.
Across her passions and disciplines, Chande holds an unwavering commitment to the sacredness of personal voice. She is sincerely devoted to creating work that upholds the integrity of her diverse knowledge while articulating her own bold convictions and inspiring others to do the same.