Best choreographer: Ananya Chatterjea

Chatterjea is unashamedly political. She taps into social justice issues with fierce passion and empathy. Her dancers don't simply move, but channel a raw intensity that they seem to suck up from the earth beneath them. We see a complex range of emotions in their faces but also in their bodies, from their cores to their fingers and toes. As a choreographer, Chatterjea's distinctive vocabulary draws on the classical Indian dance form Odissi with yoga technique and the martial art form Chhau. It's an intricate style that she employs to stir raw fury, anguish and hope as a call to action.

Best of Minnesota 2016

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