Dance Theatre of India

Katia Légeret, Ph D, is Professor of Performing Arts and Aesthetics in the Department of Theatre at University Paris 8, and director of the research laboratory EA 1573, part of the doctoral school EDESTA: Aesthetics, Sciences and Technologies of the Arts. She is particularly interested in the aesthetics of Indian dance and theatre with regard to traditional and modern aspects, this theatre's influence on European directors and how it is staged theatrically in contemporary France and Europe. Since her adolescence, and in parallel with her studies, Katia Légeret aka Manochhaya has pursued professional training in Bharata-natyam (dance/theatre of South India). Her training began in France with Amala Devi (a disciple of Ram Gopal) in the Dance Studies courses in The Sorbonne in 1979. This was followed by several years in Chennai, India, with K. Swarnnamukhi (Tamil Nadu's State Dancer). In 1985, she began to study with Venkatalakshamma in Mysore (Karnataka), and since 1986, she has performed the work of K. Muralidhar Rao (Pandanallur style) and has created an international career in the Bharata-natyam style. As a choreographer and director, Manochhaya-Katia Légeret has composed several performances as Dance-Poem (Paris, Menagerie de verre, 1998), Shiva Rodin (Paris, Musée Rodin/La Reine blanche, 2012), Helder Camara's Poetry (Recife, Bresil, 2012), Panchatantra and La Fontaine (Université Paris 8, 2014), Le Tarjuman d Ibn 'Arabi (Fez Festival, Maroc, 2012), La Conférence des oiseaux d'Attâr (Fez Festiva, Maroc, 2013), Mysore Stutis (Musée MNAAG-Guimet, Paris, 2016), La Porte de l'Enfer de Rodin, and Joyaux Moghols (Grand Palais, Paris, 2017).