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Performance Festival
August 6-16, 2026
Ömer Yükseker & Rajvi Dedhia
Tandava (தாண்டவம்)
Nova Bhattacharya & Suvendrini Lena
Venue
The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance Mimi Herrndorf Studio Theatre
SAT AUG 8, 6:00 PM*
SUN AUG 9, 4:00 PM*
Work-in-Development // Co-presented with Citadel + Compagnie
45 Minutes
Ticket Price
$20 / $35 / $50
How can we honour the disappeared?
Drawing from the verses of the 6th-century Tamil poet-saint Karaikkal Ammaiyar and shaped by the histories of the Sri Lankan civil war, Tandava (தாண்டவம்) invites audiences into a ritual-infused performance of devotion and remembrance.
Moving through themes of creation, destruction and transformation, the work weaves percussive movement with Tamil language. It investigates elements of ancient practices that bind words and lands through inscribing and preserving text on ola leaf manuscripts.
Tandava is an interdisciplinary meditation on collective healing and affirms the belief that the body can hold and communicate what words cannot, exploring the persistence of painful memories, grief and resilience. You’ll feel the space held with love as the stories of those lost without rites or recognition are honoured.
*All performances of Tandava will be followed by a brief post-show Q&A.
Creator, Choreographer & Performer: Nova Bhattacharya
Creator, Director & Playwright: Suvendrini Lena
Composer: Kalaisan Kalaichelvan
Projection Artist: Ge (Luke) Lu
Creative Collaborators & Performers: Karthiha Parthiban & Purawai Vyas
Creative Collaborator & Understudy: Candace Kumar
Outside Eye: Victoria Mata
Assistant Stage Manager: Eilish 미정 Shin-Culhane
Production Coordinator: Mathura Yogalingam
Co-presented with Citadel + Compagnie, as part of SummerWorks’ Associate Artists program.
Created with support from The Metcalf Foundation; The Theatre Creator’s Reserve, including Cahoots Theatre, Canadian Stage and Fu-Gen Theatre Company. The Open Space Programme at The National Ballet of Canada, and Nova Dance’s Long Term Residency with The Theatre Centre.
Tandava is performed in both English and Tamil.
All performances will offer Peer Support in both English and Tamil.
Learn more about SummerWorks’ Access Measures HERE.
Sensory: burning of incense / camphor.
Content Advisories for this project are available here. This link will open to a new webpage that lists Content Advisories for ALL SummerWorks 2026 projects. Please take care as you review this list.
SummerWorks Performance Festival
August 6-16, 2026
Tickets on Sale > July 13th!
This year’s Festival theme, Fight | Flight brings forward urgent creative responses to this troubling moment in time. Across the 2026 Festival, artists root themselves in place, community, ancestry, and practice, while also shifting perspectives, rewriting histories, and creating new narratives through the body, exploring memory, consent, transformation, and identity, through resistance, humour, and intimacy.
