Shanti Pillai (Ph.D. '05) received the 2017 Fulbright Research Award for her project, "Feminist Kinesthesia: Women as Innovators of Contemporary Performance in India."
The Fulbright Research Award is a highly competitive scholarship that funds research for international education. The Fulbright Program seeks to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between people of the United States and of other countries.
Shanti is a bharatanatyam dancer trained by T. Balasaraswati’s two senior disciples, Nandini Ramani of Chennai and Priyamvada Sankar of Montreal. She has also worked in contemporary dance and theater. From 1991-1996 she performed with the Frente de Danza Independiente in Ecuador. Since 2005 she has worked for extended periods in Cuba, collaborating with dancers and actors and creating and performing in original works, including a multicultural version of Shakuntala. Her current projects include the performative lecture, To the Academy, and an in-progress, full-length work of text and movement, In Transit, both under the auspices of Third Space Laboratory Theatre.
In her creative work Shanti investigates ways in which the principles and techniques of traditional Indian theater can serve the creation of a contemporary, physical language that explores the theatrical form and cultural politics. This includes endeavoring to create intimacy and distance through the juxtaposition of multiple acting styles as well as challenging the audience to question where the lines between performer and character begin and end.