HEARTLANDS is the centrepiece of INFLUX’s decennial celebration. It explores the nature of human relationship to the land—a relationship shaped by body, geography, geology, climate, daily interaction and consequently, culture.

HEARTLANDS, a place of importance, is a physical location that has lodged itself into our sensory memory. It refers to the place that remains at the centre of one’s feeling-realm, no matter how far one physically goes away from it.

In their first step into an artistic collaboration, dancer Nayana Keshava Bhat and theatre-maker Sankar Venkateswaran posit their respective Bharatanatyam and Kudiyattam practices within an unconventional, culturally universal framework. Through rituals of movement, music and conversation, the theatre becomes a space for collective remembering and (re)connection to the heartlands within and without.

Artist bios:

Sankar Venkateswaran is a theatre director from Kerala, India. Sankar studied at School of Drama and Fine Arts, University of Calicut, and at Theatre Training and Research Programme, Singapore. In 2007, he founded Theatre Roots & Wings, and created works including ”Sahyande Makan: The Elephant Project“ (2008), Shogo Ohta‘s ”Water Station“ (2011), and Henrik Ibsen‘s ”When We Dead Awaken“ (2012). In 2013 Sankar received the Ibsen Scholarship from Teater Ibsen, Norway for “Tribal Ibsen Project” using theatre as a tool to engage with the indigenous communities in the jungles of Attappadi, Kerala. His following works, “Criminal Tribes Act” (2017), ”Indian Rope Trick“ (2020) and ”My Name is Tamizh“ (2022) dealing with identity, history and heritage as souces of creation reflect the shift in his working context. His works have been presented at major international festivals such as Zurich Theater Spectakel, Theaterfestival Basel, Spielart Festival Munich, Kyoto Experiment, Theater Commons Tokyo, Zoukak Sidewalks in Beirut, and National Arts Festival, South Africa. He has also been a guest director at various theatres and institutions including Munich Volkstheater, where he directed ”Tage der Dunkelheit“ (2016) and ”INDIKA“ (2017); Theaterhaus Jena with ”Im Tod—In My Time of Dying“ (2022); and NINASAM in Heggodu, Karnataka with ”Antharanga“ (2020), a Kannada adaptation of Maurice Maeterlinck‘s ”Interior“. Apart from directing, Sankar has served as the artistic director for the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (2015, 2016) with themes ”Theatres of Resistance“ and ”Body Political“ respectively, jury member for Zurich Theater Spektakel (2016), international curation committee member for Theaterfestival Basel (2022), and co-curator for Serendipity Arts Festival (2024, 2025), among others. He lives and works from Sahyande Theatre, a theatre-dwelling he established in Attappadi, Kerala. 

Nayana Keshava Bhat is a choreographer and dancer, with a practice rooted in interdisciplinarity. Born and raised in the coastal town of Udupi, India, she has been based in Salzburg, Austria since 2012. Nayana founded “INFLUX – Network for Dance, Theatre and Performance" in 2017 to sustain her work in multiple forms and formats under one umbrella. Bharatanatyam, contemporary dance practices and improvisation in performance have been a formative element in her artistic practice, alongside writing. Since graduating with a diploma in choreography from Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance in 2013, Nayana has created several choreographic works at the intersection of dance, theatre and performance. Her works as a performer and choreographer have been presented at various festivals and venues, including India Now Festival and SAMA Festival (UK), World Performing Arts Festival (Pakistan), SOMMERSZENE Festival, Jazz & the City Festival, Zwischeräume Festival, PERFORMdANCE Festival, Hier Kommt Kunst Festival, Gegenwind Festival, tanz_house festival, amongst others. Nayana has been a recipient of several prizes and grants including the "Annual Fellowship Prize for Performing Arts" awarded by the Federal State of Salzburg in 2022. Some of her important artistic collaborations include her work with Katie Duck, Marinella Senatore, Karthik Mani, Chris Dahlgren, Jordina Millà, Almut Kühne, Tomaž Simatović, amongst others. In 2026, she has been invited by the Stadt Salzburg to curate and lead a new initiative titled “City Encounters – Begegne deiner Stadt!”

Chris Dahlgren, born in New York, 1961, received his BM in Jazz Studies from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (1986) and an MA in Composition / Experimental Music from Wesleyan University (2003). Chris studied composition with La Monte Young, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, and double bass with Barry Green, François Rabbath and Dave Holland, among others. In the mid-1980s, as the in-house bassist at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club in Cincinnati/Ohio, Chris performed with many great American jazz masters such as Herb Ellis, Red Rodney, Art Lande and Joe Lavano, while establishing himself as a composer during this time. In 1993 he returned to his native New York and played actively for eleven years with his own bands (Slow Commotion, Best Intentions) in the downtown scene and released on well-known record labels. From 2001 to 2009 he was a regular member of ensembles led by the pioneering avant-garde composer and woodwind player Anthony Braxton. Chris has lived in Berlin since 2004, playing, composing and collaborating with many European musicians, composers and artists. Since 2006, he has been improvising and composing with the Viola da Gamba, moving away from baroque clichés and putting them into a new perspective. In 2018, he released his first recording as a singer/songwriter with “DHALGREN” (Boomslang Records), followed by “Songs from a Dystopian Utopia” in 2020.