About the Performance

The Next Cup of Tea is a solo dance-theater performance by Anjal Chande that investigates how to make sense of the never-ending impulses that run through our heads, our everyday moments, and our contradictory experiences. Through improvisational dance and storytelling, Chande reflects on money and being brown in a stratified America, routine interactions with her grandfather, the paradox of art, and more. Chande’s improvisational movement follows her non-conformist impulses, whether that be the bharatanatyam technique in which she is trained, pedestrian habits, mood or personality, or other subconscious influences. The Next Cup of Tea explores the intersection between mundane materiality and the mind’s subjective world. Through interaction with abstract props, Chande contrasts the ordinariness of daily physical routine with the compelling, gnawing quality of inner feelings eager to be seen, heard, and understood. Juxtaposing the personal, political, and philosophical dimensions of the individual experience, The Next Cup of Tea serves as an introspective invitation to look at our kaleidoscopic interior, and to accept the task of deciphering whatever it is we feel today.

Chicago Performs is organized by Tara Aisha Willis, former MCA Curator, with Laura Paige Kyber, Curatorial Associate.

About the Artist

Anjal Chande is an artist, performer, producer, writer, and space-maker who was recently featured on Vocalo Radio’s “This Is What Chicago Sounds Like” in September 2022. Her work has been presented/supported by the Chicago Dancemakers Forum 2019 Lab Artist Award, Ragdale Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, the Illinois Arts Council, Sophiensaele in Berlin, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Drive East in New York, World Music Festival in Chicago, and numerous stages in India. She received a Fulbright award to perform and study in Berlin, researching the dance community and factors that contribute to thriving urban arts ecosystems. Chande founded Soham Dance Space in 2007 as a home for creative practice, live performance, critical dialogue, and community gatherings. Trained in numerous music and dance forms since childhood, Chande draws from a wide creative range in making her art. She teaches performance art and bharatanatyam through radical pedagogies and has a desire to instill a sense of creative possibility and critical reflection within her students. Her essay on bharatanatyam dance in Chicago will hopefully be in the forthcoming Third Coast Dance anthology published by University of Illinois Press.