Artistic Director
Charlotte Moraga
CHARLOTTE MORAGA
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Charlotte Moraga began dancing at the age of nine. Four years after beginning her study with Pandit Chitresh Das she joined his company and was a principal dancer in his original works from 1996 to 2016 such as Darbar, Pancha Jati, Subali Sugriwa, Sampurnam, India Jazz Progressions, Sita Haran, Yatra, and Shiva. In 2002 she had her Ganda Bandhan ceremony in Kolkata and performed her first 2 hour solo concert. Since then, she has toured as a solo artist throughout the US and India. She has performed in many prestigious venues and festivals around the world.
“Thursday night’s triumph belonged to Charlotte Moraga…She has technical virtuosity, but more importantly she has intention, and an intelligence that shapes every step.”
Also in 2002, she became the inaugural director of the Chitresh Das Youth Company. She is committed to developing and nurturing the next generation of kathak artists. She has created choreography for the CDYC for almost two decades. In 2018, in her Guru’s birthplace of Kolkata, India, Charlotte received the “Anugami” for her dedication to her Guru and his legacy.
In 2007, she received a Shensen Performing Arts Fellowship which helped her to create original work in collaborations with tap dancer, Chloe Arnold, in ‘Sangam’ at Das’ India Jazz Progressions. Her Performing Diaspora residency at CounterPulse in 2009 helped her to create ‘Conference in Nine,’ based on a 12th century Sufi poem with Prasant Radhakrishnan. In 2018, her choreography to music composed by Ritesh Das, premiered at the War Memorial Opera House for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival to critical acclaim, and in 2019, her work ‘Aranya Devi’ premiered at the S.F. Ethnic Dance Festival at Zellerbach Hall. She is currently collaborating with musician Alam Khan and scenic designer, Matthew Antaky in a new work, ‘Mantram’, set to premiere at ODC Theater October 15th, 16 and 17th, 2021. The short film, ‘Agni’ directed by Alka Raghuram with music composed by Alam Khan was conceived and choreographed by Moraga and recently won the award for the Best Mini Arts and Fashion Film at the iHollywood Film Festival, June 2021. In addition to training the next generation in the legacy of Pandit Chitresh Das, Moraga is committed to creating new work in kathak that resonates with the moment.
Critical Acclaim for Charlotte Moraga
“Of the 16 dancers who participated in Saturday’s performance, Moraga herself claimed the most attention. Her Shiva, seen only in silhouette behind a screen that suggested the Earth seen from a interstellar location, still mesmerized with its twisting grandeur. Here, the appeal was universal.”
“Her 2014 performance in Yatra at the Palace of Fine Arts was described as, “…elevated to classical form by Charlotte Moraga’s sense of perfection in the details and her extraordinary speed and precision in those pirouettes.” ”
“Yet as a performer she mesmerizes even more because her presentations are so infused with the excitement of discovery and the evident joy she experiences at the ever changing play between the musicians and the dancer. Rarely have I seen such technically complex, crystalline dancing performed with such abandon.”