Artist Statement

I pull from the spirit of Hip Hop culture and Indian Classical dance to explore themes centered on community, relationships, and institution. My purpose is to create and share for the everyday person. As I create art, I am constantly thinking about my 8-year old neighbors, the young people I worked with from Barry Farms, Condon Terrace, and Uptown, and so many others in DC. From my perspective, if those folks are not helping to drive art in our city, we’re failing in our mission.

About the Artist

Chitra Subramanian is a professional dancer, choreographer, and educator residing in Washington, DC since 2002. She is a Pittsburgh native, originally from South India. She currently teaches, choreographs, and performs with an emerging collective of artists called chitra.MOVES. Her aesthetic draws from Hip Hop and Indian Classical foundations to tell stories, elevate artists, and meaningfully engage unseen and new audiences. For almost 20 years, Chitra has shared her love for dance through teaching, choreography, performance, and learning.

Chitra moved to America with her family at the age of three. The first place they lived was Lynchburg, Virginia, a major national center for conservative Christianity. For Chitra’s Hindu, open-minded family, this was a challenging and isolating place to be new immigrants. It was here Chitra first experienced what it feels like to be the other--a brown-skinned kid with a hard-to-pronounce name and, as her school teachers often reminded her, a follower of a “sinful” religion.

A few years later, Chitra’s family relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and got introduced to the vibrant and close-knit South Indian immigrant community there. In particular, the Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple served as a refuge. There, Chitra began her training in Bharatanatyam, an ancient Indian Classical Dance form. She studied under the internationally renowned teacher, Jaya Mani. At the age of 16, Chitra graduated through the rigorous performance of the Arangetram, the highest honor for those completing training.

Chitra’s relationship with Hip Hop was nurtured in the Pittsburgh and DC club scenes with the support and inspiration of Black DJs, producers, and promoters, and through her longtime social justice work with children and families at a local nonprofit, M.O.M.I.E’s (Mentors of Minorities in Education), where she served many roles, including Executive Director. It was in spaces like the Shadow Lounge in Pittsburgh (Justin Strong), and 'Reunion Thursdays' at Chief Ike's Mambo Room in DC (DJ's Eurok and Orbit22) that helped forge lifelong friendships and propelled Chitra to immerse herself in the DC Hip Hop scene.

Through her collective, chitra.MOVES, Chitra utilizes her movement aesthetic to tell stories, elevate individual narratives, and celebrate community. Chitra’s core philosophy is to allow her dancers to move naturally: to pull out the unique dance gifts that live inside of each dancer while still operating within the core style Chitra brings.

Chitra has presented work at DanceUSADance (India’s ZEETV Network), the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, Joe’s Movement Emporium, Dance Place, and PearlPRESENTS Festival. She has taught at various community-based and university settings including, CityDance Center, Sitar Arts Center, The Movement Factory (Cleveland), Joe’s Movement Emporium, and Slippery Rock University’s Dance Department.