Often the things we desire are not ours.

In Hindu philosophy, vasanas are unfulfilled longings that survive the death of the physical body, passed down through bloodlines as living, present icchā / desire.

icchā is a 60-minute interdisciplinary solo kathak work weaving original music, set design, kathak and garba. barkha is visited by her maternal ancestors in a dream. They choose her to express, release, and fulfill their desires: born from survival, loss, intimacy, violence, the denial of dance and embodied selfhood.

Matrilineages are most often the unnamed, interrupted, and absorbed into the histories of patriarchs. The work confronts the body as a site of ancestral history asking: who do we carry within us? This work allows these ancestors to breathe again and ask what in your body might be their unfinished reaching? 

icchā is meant to be a somatic shraadh, an ancestral reverence of many secret tragedies that have dissolved with passing time. 

Bio 

Barkha Patel is a touring kathak artist, choreographer, educator and Artistic Director of Barkha Dance Company. Barkha’s work has been presented at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Little Island, 92Y, and Chelsea Factory among others. Barkha has been recipient of the 2023 Juried Bessie Award through which she received support from the New York State Dance Force in 2024, to tour a full-evening work ahaM | Maha.

Barkha was awarded the Princess Grace Dance Award ‘24, selected as a finalist for NEFA’s NDP Finalist ‘24, and was a Harlem Stage WaterWorks Fellow ‘24. She has been a recipient of residencies with Movement Research, NYS Choreographic Institute, and Topaz Arts. She completed her first India tour across six cities in ‘25 in collaboration with Canadian based kathak artist Tanveer Alam. 

icchā has been made possible by a Special Projects Grant from the Princess Grace Foundation, CUNY Dance Initiative Grant, and partial funds from the New England Foundation for the Arts NDP Grant Award 2024.