MFOK, being an International Dance festival, features renowned International and National Artists in Performances, Workshops, Seminars & Community Outreach Programs. The Prelude Workshops are scheduled to happen between NOV 17 & NOV26 at AAL SPACE Kochi, where 3 renowned teachers SARAH ELSWORTH (New Zealand), ABHILASH NINGAPPA(Bangalore) & SHIRAZ DAGAN (Israel) are the facilitators. The Performance Festival begins with an Inaugural Function at Fine Arts Hall on Nov 27th, followed by the performance REFLET by Compagnie Xuan Le (France) On the following 3 days (Nov 28,29 & 30th), the festival continues at JT PAC Kochi with 7 performances happening over the 3 days. Among the 7 performances are renowned performers namely Mythili Prakash-India US, Myan Dance company-Mumbai, Dakshina Dance company-Chennai and many more.

Reasons to Attend the Event:

Witness some of the most artistic & powerful contemporary and traditional performances from India and abroad

Join workshops led by acclaimed Indian and international teachers.

From performances, pop-up installations to interactive public events, MFOK is where Kerala’s artistic energy comes alive. Meet celebrated artists, creators, and dreamers

Curators: Abhi VS, Paris Laxmi, Sreejith P

Collaborators: Alliance Française de Trivandrum, Manorama Hortus

Studio Partner: AAL STUDIO, Kochi

DAY 1 - 28 NOVEMBER 2025

JAAGA ILLA - (7:00 PM – 7:40 PM)

By Vishwakiran Nambi

Jaaga Illa is a contemporary dance work exploring space, identity, and urban transformation. Performed within a wooden box, it reflects Bengaluru’s shift from a green haven to a dense metropolis, questioning how progress compresses both movement and meaning. Through confined choreography, the piece reveals the tension between freedom and containment, urging us to reconsider whether a city’s true growth lies in its skyline or in the depth of its human connections.

Artisti Bio - Vishwakiran Nambi is a Bengaluru-based choreographer and filmmaker redefining Modern Indian Dance through innovation and social consciousness. Founder of the Vishwakiran Nambi Dance Company (VNDC), he blends traditional Indian movement with contemporary expression across stage and film. His acclaimed works like The Kitchen, Pyre, and Jaaga Illa explore modern India’s cultural and social narratives. Through his Loka training initiative, he nurtures emerging artists and celebrates art as an everyday expression of human grace and connection.

C-TACTILE - (8:15 PM – 9:00 PM)

By Shruti Maria Datar

C.Tactile is a powerful exploration of touch, gender, and the body’s politics. Through evocative movement, it questions the female experience within a world shaped by the male gaze and redefines touch as both resistance and connection. Supported by the KCC Arts Fellowship (2023–24) and premiered under the G5A Warehouse Performance Grant (2024–25), the work has toured major venues including Bangalore International Centre and Museum of Goa.

Artist Bio - Shruti Maria Datar is a choreographer whose practice investigates touch, perception, and the relational body. In C-TACTILE, she transforms physical contact into a poetic dialogue — where stillness resonates and the unseen becomes tangible.

DAY 2 - 29 NOVEMBER 2025

TO-MOULD (6:00 PM – 6:45 PM)

By Somya Kautia & Sarah Elsworth

To Mould is a duet by interdisciplinary artists Somya Kautia (India) and Sarah Elsworth (New Zealand) that reimagines the earthen pot as both object and dance partner. Drawing from the pot’s ritualistic and feminine symbolism, the performance explores cycles of memory, resilience, and transformation. Beginning with a clay ritual that grounds the audience in touch and texture, the piece unfolds through movements of balancing, stirring, and breaking—blurring boundaries between body, sculpture, and earth. Supported by the G5A Warehouse Performance Grant (2025), To Mould bridges urban pace with nature’s stillness, offering an immersive reflection on connection and renewal.

Artist Bios - Somya Kautia is a Mumbai-based movement artist working across dance, performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Trained internationally, her practice blends research and performance, with recent works including Seven Sisters (2024) and Under Body, Below Word: A Space (2025).

Sarah Elsworth is a New Zealand-based movement artist and educator exploring dance, performance, and community practice. A UNITEC graduate, she has presented work at major festivals across Australasia, with recent projects including Green Silence (2023) and To Mould (2025).

PINNAL - (7:15 PM – 8:15 PM)

By Divya Nair (Dakshina)

Pinnal — meaning “braid” in Tamil — is a Bharatanatyam-based contemporary dance production that reimagines the braid as a symbol of memory, resistance, and inheritance. Through seven feminine archetypes — the Mother, Warrior, Lover, Seeker, Rebel, Sage, and Survivor — the piece weaves stories of power, vulnerability, and resilience drawn from mythology, poetry, and lived experience. Each performer carries her braid as a unique emblem of identity and defiance. Intimate and evocative, Pinnal celebrates women’s voices not as mythic ideals but as living truths, bound together in the timeless braid of sisterhood.

Artist Bio – Divya Nayar is a Chennai-based dancer, choreographer, and artistic director. Trained at Kalakshetra and under acclaimed guru Sheejith Krishna, she has performed widely and served as Creative Director at Isha Samskriti (2016–2023). In 2022, she founded Dakshina, a repertory and learning space dedicated to reimagining Indian classical dance, music, and poetry through innovative performance. Her ensemble Dakshina presents Pinnal: Tales of a Sisterhood, a powerful production celebrating feminine strength and storytelling through the Bharatanatyam idiom.

MOL - (8:45 PM – 9:30 PM)

By Myan Dance Company (Mukta & Ashish)

Mol — meaning “daughter” — is a contemporary dance theatre work that draws inspiration from the traditional practice of the ghungat (veil) and rooted in personal experiences of growing up in northern India, the piece explores the layered realities of womanhood. Told through the journey of a female protagonist, Mol examines the silent endurance, resilience, and search for belonging that define many women’s lives.

Artist Bios - Mukta Nagpal and Ashish Rao, co-founders of Myān, bring together over a decade of experience each in contemporary dance, choreography, and performance. Their shared vision through Myān is to build a platform for storytelling through movement—where physicality meets emotion and reflection. In Mol, they draw from personal histories and social realities to explore themes of identity, endurance, and belonging, continuing Myān’s commitment to creating dance works that are both intimate and socially resonant.

DAY 3 - 30 NOVEMBER 2025

NERPALA - (6:00 PM – 7:00 PM)

By Dileep Chilanka

Nerappala (meaning wooden planks once used as shop shutters) is a site-specific performance that celebrates the memories and everyday rhythms of village life. Blending movement, music, and storytelling, it transforms the humble plank into a symbol of connection and nostalgia. Inspired by local landscapes and folk traditions like Theyyam, Yakshagana, and Oppana, the piece reflects on lost communal gatherings and the cultural identity rooted in shared spaces and stories.

Artist Bio- Dileep Chilanka is a movement practitioner and performance-maker whose work explores the relationship between body, object, and space. Rooted in everyday gestures and local practices, his creations often reflect on memory, labour, and the poetry of the ordinary. With Nerappala, he reimagines the forgotten wooden shutters of rural Kerala as living witnesses to time and community—transforming their rhythms into movement, form, and story.

JWALA - (8:00 PM – 9:00 PM)

By Mythili

Jwala (Rising Flame) is a Bharatanatyam production that delves into themes of loss, resilience, and renewal. Born from personal grief, it uses fire as a powerful metaphor—both destructive and life-giving, fragile yet transformative. Through movement and music, Jwala reflects on the enduring flame within us that continues to burn through despair, guiding us toward light, hope, and rebirth.

Artist Bio - Mythili Prakash is an acclaimed Indian-American Bharatanatyam artist celebrated for her mastery, stage presence, and contemporary vision. A principal dancer with the Akram Khan Company, she has performed worldwide at venues like Sadler’s Wells, Jacob’s Pillow, and the Music Academy. Her works—AR | DHA, Jwala, and She’s Auspicious—reflect a deep dialogue between tradition and modernity. A United Artists Fellow (2024) and Dance Umbrella’s “Choreographer of the Future,” she continues to redefine Bharatanatyam for global audiences.