Nandita Shankardass/Welcome Movement®

Nandita Shankardass is a Performing Artist, Choreographer, Educator, Facilitator and the Founder of Welcome Movement®

Nandita Shankardass is a performing artist, choreographer, facilitator and educator, speaker and the founder of Welcome Movement®. Nandita is a Clore emerging leader, an artist in residence at Rambert Dance and an associate artist and a Ballet Futures facilitator with English National Ballet. She forms part of the EDI working group for Dancers Career Development 2022 – 2024 and a member of the Without Walls Consortium artist’s advisory group.

Nandita founded Welcome Movement® in 2020 to generate wellbeing, stimulate creativity and empower freedom of expression through movement and dance for individuals, organisations and communities to engage with and explore. She has devised and delivered workshops and performances for Summer on the Square with National Gallery and Design and Dance Family day workshops at William Morris Gallery. Nandita has created tailored experiences for organisations including JKS Restaurant group, GuarantCo, Baytree Centre, English National Ballet Youth Co., and Spring Grove Care Home.

Her career has taken her to dance with world-renowned companies; Zürcher Ballet, Victor Ullate Ballet, Ballet Black, Scottish Ballet and Compañia Nacional de Danza, performing across Europe and the U.K and touring internationally in a diverse range of classical and contemporary repertoire by a spectrum of choreographers.

Nandita has choreographed for Zürcher Junior Ballet, Ballet Black and as a Young Choreographer for Compañia Nacional de Danza, tve Global Sustainability Film Awards and the CAT graduates at The Place and for ANHAD Festival. She has collaborated and performed with Sujata Banerjee Dance Company and their Youth Co., Adrian Look Tanztheater, Beeja Dance, Vidya Patel at Sadlers Wells and Tate Modern, Joseph Toonga and Hubert Essakow at The Royal Opera House for their Family Sunday events, Joss Arnott Dance for Greenwich Dance Arts Unboxed. Nandita has collaborated with Sadlers Wells to co-create Taster Dance workshops for their Take Part online series. She has also directed and choreographed dance films in collaboration with a range of musicians, Unheard Poetry and Worm London. Nandita has collaborated with Fabula Collective as a performer and a creative consultant. She assists artists and performers with movement direction and dramaturgy. Nandita has been teaching companies, artists and the wider community of all ages, backgrounds and abilities for over 10 years with dance classes and creative workshops across London, Europe and Asia.

Nandita is interested in how the creative and production processes in the arts and culture can generate a sustainable future for the environment, which surrounds us, as well as the inner environment of our body, mind and soul. She is continually driven by the care and compassion she can create and offer in her creative processes and in the participatory experiences and spaces she facilitates.