TEHREEMA MITHA

8509 Pelham Road

Bethesda, MD

USA      20817-3817

tel/fax: 301-581-9520

email: webarron@aol.com

 

Background

 

Dancers from the Indian Sub-continent trace back their art to the oldest known dancing figure in the world, “The Dancing Girl of Mohenjodaro” from a sophisticated civilization that dates back to 5000 B.C. While dance has flourished in India, in Pakistan where the sites of Harrapa and Mohenjodaro have actually been excavated, dance and particularly dance by women, is discouraged.

 

In this environment, Tehreema Mitha has not only studied this art form under the tutelage of her mother/teacher Indu Mitha, (since the age of seven), but has also made this her profession, performing extensively within Pakistan and abroad. Presently, Tehreema is a staff dance instructor at the Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, DC. She gave regular classes in Islamabad from 1992-1997, building up a group of advanced senior students; lecture demonstrations and workshops often to an audience that has never seen dance. Through her collaboration with Pakistan’s eminent classical and folk musicians, she has striven to bring the music to younger audiences, who are rarely exposed to it, in a lively and interesting manner.

 

 

Dance Styles

 

Tehreema  Mitha received a strict education in the classical style of Bharatanatyam from her mother/teacher Indu Mitha, who had herself studied the Uday Shanker style in Lahore; and Bharatanatyam from Madras and Delhi with Lalita Shastri, one of the foremost teachers to graduate from Rukmini Devi’s famous institution, Kalakeshetra.

 

While adhering to the strictures of the CLASSICAL technique, thematically and musically, Indu and Tehreema Mitha have shifted away from the traditional Bharatanatyam framework to create a style particular to them-selves. They have cast aside the myths of yore for more universal or contemporary themes and abandoned the traditional accompaniment of southern music for the more familiar and – to Pakistani ears- more pleasing music of the north of the sub-continent.

 

Tehreema Mitha is Pakistan’s only avowedly CONTEMPORARY dancer and choreographer. Since 1991 when she performed her first modern dance item, she has continually experimented and developed her own technique of modern dance. While the footfall, distribution of weight, posture and movement are clearly rooted in the sub-continents indigenous styles, (both classical and folk), the choreography is radical and daring with respect to both emotion and presentation.

 

Since 1986 when Tehreema performed her Arangatram, (a two hour solo performance whereby the teacher, according to tradition, presents the dancer to society as a serious student of the art) Tehreema has given numerous solo performances incorporating items in both styles in each recital. From 1993, however, Tehreema has performed with her own troupe of eight dancers, and premiered group dances in both the classical and contemporary mode.

 

Summary of Accomplishments

Dancer/ Choreographer - Classical Bharatanatyam and Contemporary Dance 

 

Ø      choreographed and produced 38 (solo and group) dances in both Classical Bharatanatyam and  Contemporary dance; and produced the accompanying music for each piece;

 

Ø      performed professionally from 1990 to the present at numerous venues in Pakistan, and in the United Kingdom, the United States, China, India, Guatemala, and Germany;

 

Ø      collaborated with an independent filmmaker, Shireen Pasha, of The Filmmakers to produce “And She Dances On” a Dance Documentary on Tehreema’s work as a dancer/choreographer. Funded by the Royal Netherlands and Royal Norwegian Embassies in Pakistan, it premiered in Pakistan at the American Center in Islamabad in 1996. This documentary was selected among other documentaries presented at the 1997 Asian Film Festival to tour Europe, Asia and North America;

 

Ø      participated and performed as a woman Pakistani performing artist in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum on Women held in Beijing, China in 1995.  Sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Islamabad; and

 

Ø      taught classes of classical and contemporary dance for adults and children at her own studio in  Islamabad, Pakistan from 1993 to 1997.

 

Ø      teaches dance as a staff dance instructor at the Joy of Motion Dance Center in Washington, DC

 

Promoter of Performing Arts

 

Ø      promoted and enhanced all the arts in Pakistan, associated with dance through hosting concerts for some of the most accomplished, and sometimes little recognized musicians and vocalists of Pakistan; and

 

Ø      created and secured funding for Pakistan’s first-ever National Dance Festival which toured Pakistan in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi at the end of 1995. This biennial event was transformed into an international festival in 1997.

Artist and Drama Consultant for Community Development

Ø      committed to using the performing and visual arts as a median for non-formal education and communication in rural and urban slum communities; designing and facilitating community development workshops as an visual artist and performing artist

Ø      worked for non-governmental organizations and the World Bank, training field staff (both men and women) to use traditional forms of drama as a means of communication.