Temple of Desire

Enter the Temple of Desire, an imaginary sanctum that invites us to indulge in the spiritual and the sensual all at once!

Fresh from a sell-out, award-winning season in Melbourne and Toronto, this bold new work features dancers trained in the classical Indian form of Bharatanatyam. Subversive, sumptuous, and unapologetically queer, Temple of Desire explores themes through the medium of dance that is both defiant and evocative.

Temple of Desire was the Winner of the Melbourne Fringe Director’s Choice Award and nominated for Outstanding Choreography at the Green Room awards. Stick around after the show, as we roll into ‘Temple of Desire: The Party!’. Our DJ will spin the decks in one final uplifting celebration of our histories, futures, dreams and desires.

“Stunned by the breathtaking performance. Truly mesmerising.” – The Age

About Karma Dance Inc.

Australia's most critically acclaimed Indian dance company, Karma Dance creates modern, visually stunning and evocative performances based on classical Indian traditions. Drawing on ancient traditional practices, we tell stories of contemporary relevance addressing themes of migration, colonisation, diaspora, gender, sexuality and identity through award winning works, to sell-out audiences.

Awards

WINNER - Best Visual / Digital Design, Green Room Awards (2024)

WINNER - Best Dance & Physical Theatre, Melbourne Fringe (2020)

WINNER - Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practice, Melbourne Fringe (2020)

NOMINEE - Green Room Awards (2022 and 2024)

NOMINEE - Australian Dance Awards (2020)

Creative team:

Director: Govind Pillai (he/they)

Producer: Manjusha Manjusha (she/her)

Cast list: Sahithi Chintakunta (she/her), Neptune Henriksen (they/it), Veena Kadayaprath (she/her), Jaya Karan (she/her), Govind Pillai (he/they), Divya Raghavan (she/her), Ramya Raghavan (she/her), Saranya Saravanan (she/her), Sangeeta Sathyanath (she/her), Davina Shaji (she/her), Ambika Shivaramu (she/her), Divya Shreejit Kumar (she/her), Aparna Subramaniam (she/her), Archana Subramaniam (she/her), Sindusa Wignarajan (she/her), Arulselvam Subramaniam (she/her)

Creatives: Set Design - Jonathan Fae (he/him), Lighting Design - Max Woods (he/him)