Before witnessing how Herve Koubi masterfully blends Hip Hop with classical dance forms, join Washington DC-based dancer, choreographer, and educator Chitra Subramanian to explore how she combines Hip Hop and Indian Classical dance to create powerful storytelling. You’ll learn about the artistic process of weaving together disparate movement vocabularies in ways that resonate with both traditional and contemporary audiences.
Anchored by her immigrant roots, her deep love for Hip Hop culture and her years of work with young people and their families in DC, Chitra will share how her personal journey informs her artistic choices. She will discuss the challenges and revelations that come from working at the intersection of these two powerful movement traditions, and how this fusion allows her to tell stories that honor her heritage while speaking to contemporary urban experiences.
Go deeper into ways dance serves as a bridge between communities, exploring how themes of relationships, community, and institutional change emerge through the marriage of Hip Hop's revolutionary spirit and Indian Classical dance's profound storytelling capacity.
This Window’s lecture is presented in partnership with CityDance.
This event is part of Strathmore’s Windows series of performances and accompanying programs. Learn more
Meet the Artist
Chitra Subramanian
Chitra Subramanian is an Indian American dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Washington, DC. A Pittsburgh native and originally from South India, she teaches, choreographs, and performs with the collective chitra.MOVES. Her aesthetic draws from Hip Hop and Indian Classical foundations to tell stories, elevate artists, and meaningfully engage unseen and new audiences.
Chitra’s work is deeply influenced by her 20+ years in youth education and community work, particularly with young people and their families in DC. Her projects explore themes of relationships, community, and the transformative power of institutions. Drawing on her immigrant roots and love for Hip Hop, Chitra’s creative process is shaped by strong community ties and a commitment to exposing untapped talent.
Recent works include TEMPLE, an evening-length performance that sold out at Dance Place, and LINKED, which premiered during her Atlas ArtsLAB residency. Chitra also curates and teaches the Rooting the Dance Hip Hop Dance Class Series, which spotlights the stories and talents of women and femmes in DC’s street dance scene while providing consistent, high-quality training for the community.
Her work has been presented at venues including The Kennedy Center, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Joe’s Movement Emporium, and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater (Pittsburgh). Chitra has also taught at American University, University of Maryland, CityDance Center, and Arts for Learning Maryland.
Chitra is the recipient of the 2024 Gallim Parent Moving Artist Residency, the DC Commission Fellowship Grant, the 2024 Atlas ArtsLAB Fellowship, and most recently the Local Dance Commission Project award through The Kennedy Center.