Parijat Desai is a contemporary choreographer and dancer. Her work draws upon bharata natyam, modern dance, and yoga. Although her choreography is a hybrid of forms, she strives to give aesthetic and technical integrity to each piece. Parijat has trained in bharata natyam under Rathna Kumar, Katherine Kunhiraman, Viji Prakash and others. She studied choreography at UCLA. Parijat has presented work at the J. Paul Getty Center and California Plaza in Los Angeles, at Performance Space 122 in New York and at festivals such as Desh Pardesh in Toronto and the Bangalore Biennial in India. She is currently a recipient of a California Arts Council Multicultural Grant.

Quiet/Fire (excerpt)

Performers: Parijat Desai

Music: Bombay Jayshree

Text: written by Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh ("Recommendation" from Call Me by My True Names. Parallax Press, Berkeley, California.)

Text read by Minal Hajratwala

Quiet/Fire was made possible in part by the California Arts Council.