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Singer. Choreographer. Performance Artist. Composer.
Surabhee Arjunwadkar holds a BA in Music and Dance from Bennington College. Born in Pittsburgh, USA and brought up in Pune, India, her work is a continual exploration of the conflict of the self in relation to tradition(s), body, culture and language.
Trained in Western classical bel canto singing, her light soprano voice is well-suited to sing early music. Her repertoire includes works by Bach, Mozart, Handel, Villa-Lobos, Barber, Ravel and Reena Esmail. A polyglot, Surabhee loves to sing in many languages including but not limited to Marathi, Spanish, Italian, French, Turkish, Greek, German, Latin, Bosnian, Hebrew, English, Persian and Bengali. In addition, she composes music for voice and instruments, has led a number of bands, and has been a part of a number of ensembles. In November 2024, she performed Turkish and Ottoman music with Joseph Alpar and friends at Skidmore College, NY.
Trained in Bharatanatyam from age 7 to 18, Surabhee’s movement work finds its roots in the grammar and vocabulary of Bharatanatyam. Her pursuit is to find movement which is full, intentional, pleasurable, and rigorous.
Her recent work includes an original evening-length performance as her senior thesis (a prelude to moving) set to Chassol’s Indiamore. It was performed in November 2024 at Bennington College, VT.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Performance to me is risk-taking. To put myself in positions I would not otherwise. There is an innocent vulgarity to my work, a curiosity about sensuality in the body, possibilities of the body. What is taboo? And how can I use that in my performance? Body fluids are fascinating to me. What comes out of us that we never talk about is worth gold to me.
I began to masturbate when I was 4. I learnt to climb jungle-gym poles when I was 7. I learnt to say goodnight in German when I was 11. I locked myself in the bathroom to read young adult books when I was 13. I told a boy I liked him when I was 15. I walked 1.5km on a deserted night street wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts to escape my mother’s wrath when I was 17. I fell off my bike and broke my jaw going down the hill when I was 22.
My biography is full of shame for the shameless. My work is an investigation of the body’s need to be seen at its vulnerable. My desire is to cause discomfort in order to expand, to push the limits of what my body can physically do. I am resisting the way things are done.