Erasing Borders Through Indian Dance

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Each August, the Indo-American Arts Council’s Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance makes Lower Manhattan a brighter place. Presented in part with the Battery Dance Festival — there’s an indoor program at Schimmel Center on Monday, Aug. 14, and an outdoor presentation at Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park on Tuesday in conjunction with Battery Dance — this spotlight on classical Indian music and dance offers an eclectic mix.

This season Ashwini Ramaswamy performs a solo from her evolving work “Nocturne,” an exploration of nightfall in the Bharatanatyam tradition, while Kalanidhi Dance, directed by Anuradha Nehru, experiments with the Kuchipudi form. When the festival moves outdoors, Sruthi Mohan, who began training in Mohiniyattam at the age of 12, dances to a poem by the Sanskrit poet Jayadeva. There’s room for the modern, too: Kalamandir Dance of New York will combine Western and classical Indian dance. (iaac.us/IAAC)

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