Chitresh Das - Performing Career

Performing Career

Pandit Chitresh Das has performed extensively throughout America, India and Europe, touring both as a solo artist, in collaborative productions, as well as with the Chitresh Das Dance Company. Das consistently tours and performs throughout India. Select performances within India include the Surya festival (1982); Pandit Ravi Shankar’s Rimpa Festival in Benares (1983), representing his home state of West Bengal in tours throughout India (1998, 1999), Dover Lane Conference, Kolkata (1979, 1982, 1984, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2003); National Kathak Festival in New Delhi (2003), Fort William, Kolkata (2005) where he performed before 4,000 Indian soldiers, UMAQ Festival, New Delhi (2004, 2006, 2007), U.S. Consulate 50th Anniversary in Mumbai (2008), Karamatullah Khan Festival in Kolkata (2008), Mumbai Festival (2008), 50th Anniversary Festival, IIT Kharagpur, India (2009) amongst others.

Das has performed extensively throughout the United States since the early 70s. In 1984 Das was selected to perform in the Olympic Arts Festival during the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Other select American performances include the Lincoln Center (1988), International Kathak festival in Chicago (2004), American Dance Festival (2004, 2006), and the American Folk festival (2008). In the San Francisco Bay Area, Chitresh Das and his Dance Company have been a mainstay of the local dance season and his company’s home season has included such masterpieces as “Gold Rush” (1990), “Sadhana” (1991), “East as Center” (2003), and his most recent award winning collaboration with tap dancer, Jason Samuels Smith, “IJS: India Jazz Suites” (2005 to present). The original IJS collaboration was selected as the number one dance performance of 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle as well as receiving the Isadora Duncan Ensemble of the year award (2005). Since IJS has toured extensively, including four tours to India, performances across America, including Hawaii, and Australia.

In 2006, the Chitresh Das and Chhandam organized a festival of Kathak dance in San Francisco, the largest Kathak festival ever to take place outside of India; it brought together Kathak dancers from all over the world. Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco inaugurated the festival by proclaiming Sept 28th “Kathak Day”.

In earlier years, Das also performed throughout Europe, including Bonn and Aachen International Dance Festivals (1983), Logan Hall in London (1984), and Nijmegen and Arnhem, Holland (1984). In the late eighties, he also performed throughout in Germany, Poland, and Hungary with Tanzprojekt.