Temple of Desire
- Company
- Karma Dance Inc
- Director
-
Govind Pillai
- Runtime
- 55 minutes
Enter the Temple of Desire—a visually stunning dance-theatre performance where the sensual meets the sacred.
Fresh from a sell-out, award-winning season at Melbourne Fringe (Australia), this bold new work features 19 dancers trained in the classical Indian form of Bharatanātyam. Dangerously, they reclaim a pre-colonial world where the divine and the sensual unite with splendour and power. Subversive, sumptuous, and unapologetically queer, Temple of Desire confronts colonial loss and gendered oppression through dance that is both defiant and evocative. Steeped in tradition, visually rich and emotionally charged, this is radical performance as resistance—alive with urgency, beauty, intimacy, and joy.
Show trailer
Credits
- Lighting Designer
- Max Woods
- Cast
- Adisri Preeti Devaraj, Anisha Manyal, Ashmita Roy, Divya Shreejit Kumar, Govind Pillai, Krithika C. Iyer, Megha Subramanian, Neptune Henriksen, Pooja Murali, Prathyusha Dwibhashi, Rachana Joshi, Ramya Raghavan, Sangeeta Sathyanath, Sanjana Ambegaonkar, Sanskruti Marathe, Shivani Joshi, Sinthuja Sriskanthan, Veena Kadayaprath, Vrunda Upadhyay
- Producer
- Manjusha Manjusha
- Assistant Director
- Divya Shreejit Kumar, Ramya Raghavan, Sangeeta Sathyanath, Veena Kadayaprath
Performances
| Date | Time | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4th July | 2:30pm | |||
| 5th July | 5:00pm | |||
| 9th July | 1:45pm | |||
| 10th July | 4:00pm | |||
| 11th July | 7:15pm |
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Venue
7 : Native Earth's Aki Studio
585 Dundas Street E
Toronto
Ontario
M5A 2B7
Access
- Level of Physical Access
- Accessible
Covid-19 policy
- Masks
- Not required
More about the show and company
Karma Dance is Australia's foremost classical and contemporary Indian dance company, with a track-record of sell-out performances and festival appearances internationally. Temple of Desire won the Director's choice award at Melbourne Fringe and was nominated for Outstanding Choreography at Australia's Greenroom awards.
Karma Dance is:
WINNER - Best Dance & Physical Theatre, Melbourne Fringe (2020)
WINNER - Best Visual / Digital Design, Green Room Awards (2024)
WINNER - Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practise, Melbourne Fringe (2020)
NOMINEE - Green Room Awards (2022, 2024), and Outstanding Choreography (2025)
NOMINEE - Australian Dance Awards (2020)
Reviews:
“Stunned by the breathtaking performance. Truly mesmerising” - The Age
“The...beauty and strength of the classical Indian dance lexicon” - Dance Informa
“Graceful, elegant” - The Conversation
“Symbolic, powerful... Relevant and courageous” – Indian Sun
“Fantastic celebration of bodies, histories, human emotions” – Peril Magazine
Land acknowledgement
This work was created on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, and will be performed on the the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee, and Wendat peoples.
Content advice
Parental guidance advised Fog machine Nudity