“Restores a faith in life itself”
The Weekly Dig
“When (ANIKAYA director/choreographer) Wendy Jehlen goes on stage, you know you are in the Realm of the Heart.”
The Hindu (New Delhi)
“Jehlen and the dancers have collectively created a kind of new contemporary language — muscular, luxuriously weighted and full-bodied, chockful of gestural flourishes, and kinetically courageous.”
The Boston Globe
“Wendy Jehlen has created a riveting and fascinating new language in dance that reflects the society in which we live.”
Evidance (Montreal)
“Conference of the Birds is a experience we all hope for when we enter a theatre, one that takes us on an emotional and visceral journey that can shift the imprints in our core.”
Asian Age (New Delhi)
“The internationally-reaching ANIKAYA Dance Theater’s The Women Gather illustrated a quintessential human experience: in sound, in movement, in communal sharing.”
Dance Informa
an – Grace, Gift (Hebrew)
i – Of (Persian)
kaya – Body (Sanskrit)
ANIKAYA Dance Theater was founded in 2003 by choreographer Wendy Jehlen. Our work has so far extended to the US, Benin, Brazil, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Canada, China, France, Haiti, India, Japan, Korea, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Palestine, Rwanda, South Africa, and Turkey.
ANIKAYA’s mission is to break down the perceived boundaries between people, cultures and art forms. ANIKAYA’s work falls into two symbiotic, porous categories – performance and community engagement. Both come back to one essential change catalyst – kinesthetic empathy. Our work questions the boundaries that we imagine between ourselves, and seeks to break down these imagined walls through an embodied practice of radical empathy.
ANIKAYA weaves together music, dance, visual art, new media and storytelling to create work that is resonant of deep-rooted traditions, without being bound to any one genre, place or practice.
ANIKAYA engages in the authentic representation of reality. We are an artist-run organization and all of our projects are created by and for people of all genders and gender presentations, people of color from the US and around the world, LGBTQIA people, people with disabilities and people who create bodies that are socially-constructed as disabled.
ANIKAYA is supported by:
