Internationally renowned as a Bharatanatyam dancer and an accomplished ceramicist, Vidya Thirunarayan blends her dual expertise to explore dance and ceramics as a cohesive performance language, producing work which is visually rich, ambitious and conceptually bold.
Vidya premiered her first outdoor work using this unique performance language with Lives of Clay in 2021/22, an outdoor work directed by Tim Supple and commissioned by Without Walls, Brighton Festival and Certain Blacks. The work went on to tour nationally and was presented at leading festivals in India.
In 2025 Vidya partnered with theatre legend David Glass to create a second Without Walls commission Holy Dirt. A pioneering multi-sensory theatrical experience rooted in eco-feminism, Holy Dirt draws on movement, music, mime and visual image to create a playful mini-epic which follows the struggle of the mythic female in the ecological crisis. Dystopian symbols of power and rebellion are channeled through Vidya’s absurdly hum-drum character and her on stage partner, a magical otherworldly figure in butoh-style make up and androgynous costume. As the Day in the Life draws to a close, the narrative reaches a transformational conclusion, one of hopeful freedom and defiant joy, offering a message of optimism and resistance.
Holy Dirt is taking bookings in 2026 and 2027.
Upcoming tour dates:
9 May Norfolk & Norwich Festival
23 & 24 May Brighton Festival
4 & 5 July An Indian Summer Leicester
