SHILPIKA BORDOLOI

Shilpika Bordoloi is an award-winning filmmaker, performing artist, educator, and curator whose creative journey bridges body, land, and story. Her deeply interdisciplinary practice sits at the intersection of film, performance, ecology, ritual, and community-based work. She describes her evolving artistic language as rooted in Body Wisdom—where memory, movement, and healing modalities converge to reimagine cultural expression.

 


 

Shilpika’s artistic practice is woven through themes of:

 

– Identity & Displacement
– Indigenous Knowledge Systems
– Ecology & Climate Action
– Sacred/Ritual-based Practices
– Land Relationship & Embodied Memory

 

She is the founder of Brahmaputra Cultural Foundation (BCF)—a 13-year-old initiative fostering artistic leadership and cultural resilience in Assam and Northeast India. The foundation aims at striking a balance between the flows of traditional and modern knowledge and addresses the social, cultural and developmental conflicts in Assam and North-East India. Cultural exchanges, residencies, workshops, research-based work, performances, festivals and archives have been the foundation’s focus areas. BCF is active in four districts – NOI Centre at Jorhat, Bhumi Centre at Golaghat, Karsang Me: Po at Majuli, Kamrup where it curates a Museum of Folk Instruments at the Mahabahu Brahmaputra River Heritage Centre in Guwahati.

 


 

Awards & Recognition

 

Shilpika’s work has received both national and artistic acclaim:

 

– Winner, 71st National Film Award (2023) – Non – Feature Films – Best Debut Film of a Director – Mau: The Spirit Dreams of Cheraw. She has been conferred the Swarna Kamal.

 

Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (2015) – Contemporary/Experimental Dance

 

These recognitions mark key moments in Shilpika’s unfolding journey, affirming her as both a creative torchbearer from Northeast India and a resonant voice in Indian cinema and Performing Arts.

 


 

Mau: The Spirit Dreams of Cheraw

 

This evocative documentary from Mizoram is a lyrical exploration of Cheraw – the traditional bamboo dance – interwoven with memory and spiritual ritual. At its heart lies the haunting tale of a mother who dies during childbirth, with the Cheraw dance becoming a symbolic expression to reimagine, honour, and soothe her restless spirit.

Shilpika herself a gifted and deeply intuitive performer and choreographer, brings rare sensitivity and movement-based insight to the film. Her choreographic sensibility enriches the visual language, making the film not just a documentary, but a moving tribute to the intangible heritage of Mizoram. The film also reflects on the deep-rooted relationship between the Mizo people and nature, reimagining a mother’s spirit through ritual and movement.

 

🎬 Watch the Trailer

 


 

Katha Yatra and Bamboo Bodies

 

Since 2011, Shilpika has travelled across the Brahmaputra river basin, creating Katha Yatra—an ongoing ethnographic and land relationship based multimedia project. It began with the creations of a physical theatre work Majuli which has performed across India, UK, Hong Kong.

Bamboo Bodies (2022), is a multimedia project through a transdisciplinary inquiry in the sensorial, elemental and imaginative world of Bamboo through touch, sound, text, film and movement.

 


 

Educator

 

Shilpika’s teaching integrates movement, performance, and embodied thinking grounded in an interdisciplinary approach.

She is a Visiting Faculty at

 

– National School of Drama (NSD)
– State University of Performing and Visual Arts (SUPVA)
– National Institute of Design (NID)
– Bharatendu Natya Academy (BNA)

 

Her last full time Academic engagement was at RV University, Bangalore – where she served as Associate Professor in the School of Film, Media and Creative Arts.

 

Her pedagogy is rooted in the understanding of the body as a living archive—a site of inquiry, identity, and cultural expression. By drawing from theatre, dance, ecology, indigenous knowledge, and cultural studies, she creates experiential learning spaces where students engage in embodied inquiry, creative experimentation, and critical reflection.

The objective is to reimagine the body not merely as a tool for performance but as a catalyst for knowledge-making and social transformation. Curricula designed by Shilpika invite learners into processes that are as investigative as they are expressive—nurturing embodied research, critical reflection, and creative practice.

 


 

Educational & Artistic Foundations

 

Raised in Jorhat, Assam, Shilpika Bordoloi began her journey in classical dance at the tender age of three, training in Manipuri under Guru Rathindra Sinha, and later continuing under the esteemed Padmashree Darshana Jhaveri. She studied Bharatanatyam with Padmashree Leela Samson and performed with her company, Spandan (2003-04).

Over time, she expanded her practice into the world of Martial Arts and Yoga. She trained in Chi-Gong and in both Chinese and Korean martial arts—including Tai-Ji-Quan—under Sensei Rashid Ansari. Her journey also embraced voice work and theatre movement, deepening her connection between body, breath, and expression. As an experimental dance artist, Shilpika draws inspiration from a wide spectrum of visionary artists and movement traditions, allowing her work to remain ever-evolving and intuitively led.

Shilpika completed her early education at Carmel School in Jorhat, followed by her higher secondary studies at Cotton College, Guwahati. She went on to earn both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English Literature from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi, India.

 


 

Through film, movement, teaching, and ritual, Shilpika Bordoloi continues to explore how the body, place, and memory shape culture, belonging, and imagination. Her work is not only an offering—it is a quiet act of resistance, reclamation, and re-storying.

Whether you’re a fellow artist, curator, journalist, or someone moved by land and language, you are invited into this space of listening, sensing, and co-creation.

 

For collaborations, screenings, or media enquiries, please get in touch.

 

shilppika.bordoloi@gmail.com

REVIEW

“Majuli is a gift to any Festival.”

– Tim Cornwell, Scotsman, 14th August 2017.

READ THE REVIEW

 

Performances

In 2020, she performed in Daughter’s Opera in Delhi. In 2013 she performed “Majuli” in Guwahati as part of the “Katha Yatra” project. Others included performances in “Women poets of the sub-continent” in Mumbai and “Longing”, Mumbai.

Choreography

She has choreographed-“Hum Hi Aapne Aap”, directed by Bipin Kumar (Repertory company, NSD), in July 2012.

Teaching

th1

She has been a Guest faculty  at the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi since June 2012. She has been teaching at the School of Film and Television, SIFT, Haryana since Feb 2013 and the Physical Theatre at Bharatendu Natya Academi (BNA), Lucknow, since 2011