Krystal Kiran brings the song and dance to Monsoon Arts Fest's Sunday Funday, August 22
The youngest South Asian woman to perform on Broadway leads a Zoom class geared to all ages
A first-generation Canadian born to immigrant parents from India, Krystal Kiran is the youngest South Asian woman to perform on the Broadway stage. Photo by David Cooper
Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts presents Sunday Funday: Song & Dance with Krystal Kiran on August 22 at 9 am PDT via Zoom
AS PART OF its month-long programming, Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts gives people a chance to learn how to bust a move with Sunday Fundays.
On August 22, accomplished artist Krystal Kiran leads the Zoom class in song and dance.
A first-generation Canadian born to immigrant parents from India, Kiran is the youngest South Asian woman to perform on Broadway.
While growing up in Penticton, Kiran studied ballet, jazz, tap, musical theatre and contemporary dance. On family trips to Kolkata (India), she also learned the classical Indian dance form of kathak as well as bhangra, the cultural folk dance of her family’s region of Punjab.
Kiran was 19 when she made her Broadway debut in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s production of Bombay Dreams. She has also appeared in Monsoon Wedding directed by Mira Nair and West Side Story at Citadel Theatre, among numerous other theatre performances. She sang with Oscar and Grammy award-winning composer AR Rahman on his Jai Ho World Tour’, while her film and TV projects include the film version of the hit musical Hairspray alongside John Travolta and being featured on the Rick Mercer Report.
“Teaching is central to my work as an artist,” Kiran tells Stir. “It is what keeps me grounded and in community. My artistic practice is best described as multi-disciplinary and an extension of my identity as a ‘third culture kid’, meaning that I was born and raised in a country that isn’t that of my family of origin, and when I go back to our home country, we are considered “foreigners”. I used to feel conflict around this, but my body of work, particularly in the cannon of western musical theatre with classical Indian training in both voice and dance, continually helps me reconcile these aspects of identity that have often times felt at odds with one another. As I continue along this journey, I am also paying attention to what it means to practise these forms of art, performance, and education as a settler on unceded First Nations lands.”
For more information, see Monsoon Festival of Performing Arts.
Related Articles
