Stories By Hand
"Witty...mythically tragic...deeply absorbing."
— The New York Times
Stories by Hand is a solo work by award-winning choreographer and performer, Preeti Vasudevan, searching for an individual identity through stories that are personal, mythical, and social and are narrated through the continuous placement and displacement of gestures affected by memory.
In Stories by Hand, Vasudevan explores intense relationships that impact one’s meaning of life. Stories of immigration, cultural dissonance, trauma, and mental health are highlighted. Through these themes, the work highlights issues of taboo, marginalization, race, gender, and culture in the current times.
Stories by Hand utilizes the hand gestures of Bharatanatyam (classical Indian dance) as the basis for a storytelling dance theater, stripping the exclusivity of its class-based history to bring the dance form into everyday expression. Stories by Hand interweaves the East and West, past and present, the mythic and the everyday.
”...how exceptionally MOVING Preeti’s performance was...The program’s mix of formal beauty, violence and deep history and narrative power was the ideal complement to Raqib’s epic jewel-like sagas. Even the formal links of the square, peering, forming and destroying--it was a really emotional synthesis.”
— Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Audience Member
Stories By Hand at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (2024)
Photo Credit: Ally Schmaling
Stories By Hand at Lincoln Center on THE GREEN (2021)
Photo Credit: Sachyn Mital
Stories By Hand World Premiere Chennai, India (2017)
Photo Credit: Maria Baranova
Trusting Your Story
Trusting Your Story (TYS) was developed from the process that led to the creation of the work TYS is an inspirational workshop that deploys theater-based techniques (choreography, music, improvisation, and reflective memory from Indian and western dance-theater techniques) to help people to explore their emotions through unexpected, often counterintuitive “frames", releasing powerful modes of self-expression.
The work explores the impact of our identity on those around us, leading to a deeper understanding of how to work together towards a collective goal. TYS is created to embrace a range of people from professional artists to the general community with no theater or movement background and no particular level of physical fitness. While serious and at times challenging, the workshop is designed to be enjoyable and highly interactive.
Introduction to Indian Dance-Theater
Artistic Director, Preeti Vasudevan leads students and community members through a fun and rhythm-filled workshop in an introduction to classical Indian dance theater exploring gestures, facial expressions, and rhythms to form personal storytelling episodes for participants.
Preeti Vasudevan: Artistic Director/Choreographer
Award-winning choreographer and cultural storyteller Preeti Vasudevan's provocative theatrical works redefine individual identity, uniting artists and audiences alike. Her creations have been lauded as a refreshing collision of eastern and western aesthetics pushing for a new expression in art-making. Using just about every mode of the performing arts (including dance, music, poetry, visual art, mime, and theater), Preeti invites cutting-edge collaborators to form a 21st-century language of expression. Her unconventional storytelling challenges the status quo of dance-theater, bridging ancient traditions with the contemporary world.
Known for igniting groundbreaking artistic partnerships, Preeti frequently collaborates with celebrated artists such as legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Guggenheim awardee Paul Kaiser and with leading ensembles like Silkroad. Preeti’s works have been commissioned by distinguished institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art NY, Glimmerglass Opera Festival NY, Guggenheim’s Works & Process NY, New Victory Theater NY, Morph Dance Company UK, and The Alliance Francaise, among others. She has been invited to sit on panels at the National Endowment for the Arts US, US Consulate panel on women creatives, Joyce Theater, and Asian American Arts Alliance.
Paul Kaiser: Co-Creator and Literary Dramaturg
Paul Kaiser is a digital artist, filmmaker, and writer, and has created works in collaboration with Robert Wilson, Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, the Flux Quartet, and Wayne McGregor.
Paul Jacobs: Sound
Paul Jacobs is one of India’s finest musicians and composers. Paul produced several collaborative efforts with folk and classical music working with award-winning producers and artists nationally and internationally, including winning the best documentary music award at the Cannes Festival in 1998.
Robert Wierzel: Production Designer
As a lighting designer, Mr. Wierzel has worked with artists from diverse disciplines and backgrounds in theatre, dance, opera and contemporary music, with companies throughout the country and abroad. His theatre work has been seen on and off Broadway, including Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill, starring Audra McDonald; the musical Fela! (Tony Award nomination); Dreams and Nightmares; and productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater; Roundabout Theatre Company; Signature Theatre Company; Playwrights Horizons; Mostly Mozart Festival; BAM; The Acting Company; and the Lincoln Center Festival/American Songbook Series.
He has worked with the opera companies in Paris-Garnier; Versailles-Château de Versailles Spectacles; Tokyo; Toronto; Bergen & Kristiansand Norway; Folk Opera, Sweden; Dutch National; Wexford Festival Opera; New York City Opera; Glimmerglass Festival; Atlanta; Seattle; Boston Lyric; Minnesota; Philadelphia; San Francisco; Houston; Washington National; Chicago Lyric; Chicago Opera Theatre; Montreal; Vancouver; Florida Grand; Portland; Colorado; Wolf Trap; San Diego; Virginia and Gotham Chamber Opera.
Robert has also collaborated on productions at the Royal National Theatre of London; Savoy Theatre, London; Lyon Opera Ballet; Berlin Opera Ballet; Musée du Louvre and the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto.
Robert is on the faculty of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a Creative Partner at Spark Design Collaborative.
"...funny, tragic, simple, complex, cerebral, accessible, detached, intimate, and one of the most stimulating evenings I can recall seeing."
"...classical and contemporary...daring dancing."
Interview with Bill T. Jones