Adrijaa CHAKRABORTY

Adrijaa is a performance practitioner and researcher working at the intersections of dance, ritual, and gender in South Asia. Her practice-based research engages with Shakta and Tantric traditions, as well as classical and folk performance forms, to examine how embodied movement becomes a mode of devotion, resistance, and knowledge-making. Drawing from ethnographic and autoethnographic methods, her work investigates how ritual performance negotiates power, labor, and care through the dancing body. Trained in both performance and critical inquiry, Adrijaa’s current projects explore women’s ritual labor, affective ecologies of devotion, and the politics of embodiment in contemporary South Asian performances.

Before coming to NUS, she completed her Master’s from University of Edinburgh and her Bachelor’s from Miranda House, University of Delhi.

Outside of her research and performance practice, she indulges in tea culture and cultural fashion.
Research Interests/
Primary Fields		 Embodied Ritual Performance; Shakta and Tantric Iconography; Classical and Folk Performances; Material Ecologies and Affect; Consumption; Performance and Ritual Aesthetics of Bengal; Ritual Labor; Practice-Based Ethnography.
Dissertation Topic/Title “The Alchemy of Shakta Rituals: Refiguring Tantra, Alcohol, and Sexuality through the Tantric Goddesses in Bengal’s Folk Theatre and Dance Traditions.”
Dissertation Advisor Dr Alvin LIM Eng Hui
Recent Presentations "Moner Manusher Khoje: Traversing Sacred Geographies, Tantric Mysticism, and the Politics of Digital Transcendence in Baul Performance." Presented at Archipelagic Performance Histories and Methodologies Conference, National University of Singapore, 2025.

"Dancing the Divine: Interrogating Vaishnavite Bhakti and Shakta Power through the Body in Bengal’s Gaudiya Nritya" Presented at Realms of Performance 2025, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"Mahakali’s Pralaya Nritya: The Tantric Embodiment of Ritual, Gender, and Power in Kali Tandava." Presented at Off the Stage: Performance Practices in Postcolonial India, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur. 
Publications Publications

  • Chakraborty, Adrijaa. (2025). “Birthing Trauma: Partition and Transgenerational Trauma through Ritwick Ghatak’s 1960 Film Meghe Dhaka Tara.” In Cinema Aesthetic: Retrospective of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. ISBN:978-81-971801-1-8.

Works in Progress （Under Review）

  • Chakraborty, Adrijaa. “From Empire’s Fantasies to TikTok Feeds: Colonialism of Baul Dance in Bengal.” Pop Moves America （under review).
  • Chakraborty, Adrijaa. “Moner Manusher Khoje: Traversing Sacred Geographies, Tantric Mysticism, and the Politics of Digital Transcendence in Baul Performance.” Conference proceedings of Archipelagic Performance Histories and Digital Methods (under review).
  • Chakraborty, Adrijaa. “Into Bonbibi’s Enchanted Forest: Reimagining Environmental Ethics, Gender, and Ritual in Bonbibi Johuranama.” Essays and Studies, Jadavpur University (under review).
  • Chakraborty, Adrijaa. “Between Honour and Obligation: Gender, Violence, and Agency in the 1947 Partition of India.” Reading South-Asia (under review).
  • Charkaborty, Adrijaa. Mahakali’s Pralaya Nritya: The Tantric Embodiment of Ritual, Gender, and Power in Kali Tandava. Presented at Off the Stage: Performance Practices in Postcolonial India, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur (passed peer review, awaiting publication)
Practice
  • Classical Dance Forms: Gaudiya Nritya, Odissi, Bharatanatyam
  • Folk Dance Forms: Bihu, Lavani, Chhau
  • Rabindra Nritya
  • Nritya Natya and Abhinaya
  • Experimental and physical Theatre
Other Experience and Information Languages: Bengali, English, Hindi, Japanese, Sanskrit (learning).

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