Nandita Shankardass 

Nandita Shankardass is a performing artist, choreographer, interdisciplinary facilitator, educator and speaker. She is the founder of Welcome Movement®, created to generate wellbeing, stimulate creativity and empower freedom of expression through movement and dance.

Nandita is a Clore emerging leader, an artist in residence at Rambert Dance, educational workshop facilitator with Ballet Black, Ballet Futures facilitator with English National Ballet and a delivering workshop artist with Akademi. She is a 2024 SEEDBED artist with 101 Outdoor Arts and a selected choreographer for McNicol Ballet Collective’s Compositions and Configurations Creative Residency 2024 held at Dance East.

Nandita joined the Royal Ballet School Junior Associate programme before joining The Royal Ballet School at the age of 11 where she trained until she was 19 years old. Whilst a student, she was awarded The Dame Ninette De Valois Award and The James Monahan Award for her choreographic work. To date Nandita is one of two females of Indian heritage to have been accepted into The Royal Ballet School, becoming one of the few female professional ballet dancers of Indian heritage in the world.

Her career has taken her to perform with Zürcher Ballet, Victor Ullate Ballet, Ballet Black, Scottish Ballet and Compañia Nacional de Danza, performing internationally in a diverse range of classical, neo-classical and contemporary repertoire. As a freelance artist in the U.K, Nandita has collaborated with The Orchestra Qawwali Project, Sujata Banerjee Dance Company, Adrian Look Tanztheater, Vidya Patel, Joseph Toonga, Fabula Collective, Beeja Dance and Hubert Essakow. She has performed at venues such as Sadlers Wells, The Royal Opera House, Tate Modern, The Royal Albert Hall, Camden Roundhouseand the Southbank Centre.

She has choreographed for Zürcher Junior Ballet, Ballet Black, Compañia Nacional de Danza, the tve Global Sustainability Film Awards, Sujata Banerjee Youth Co., and the CAT Programme at The Place. Nandita has choreographed a number of solo and duet works including a commission for ANHAD Festival for South Asian Contemporary Arts. She has choreographed dance films for The Orchestra Qawwali Project, Fabula Collective, Unheard Poetry and Worm London.

Nandita has collaborated with Joss Arnott Dance for Greenwich Dance Arts Unboxed and with Sadlers Wells to co-create Taster Dance workshops for their Take Part online series. She has worked with The Royal Opera House for their Family Sunday events and with Fabula Collective as a creative consultant. Nandita has devised and delivered creative workshops and performances for Summer on the Square with National Gallery, family workshops at William Morris Gallery and facilitated movement workshops at Tate Modern.

She has delivered and facilitated dance activity across education, community and professional settings for over 12 years across U.K, Europe and Asia, including Rambert Dance, English National Ballet, Ballet Black, Alexander Whitley Dance Company, English National Ballet Youth Co, Trinity Laban, The Place, Central School of Ballet, London Ballet Classes, House of Mass, Elite Ballet Project, Segovia Dance School in Spain, Edge n' Pointe Dance Centre in Hong Kong and ICMD, Shiamak Davar Company, Hamara Footpath in India. Nandita has curated and facilitated creative space for Asian Women’s resource Centre and Spring Grove Care Home and World Peace Garden and OmVed Gardens. She is a global mentor for Institute of Classical and Modern Dance in Mumbai, India.

Nandita formed part of the 1st EDI Working Group for Dancers Career Development between 2022-2023 and is currently on the Artists Advisory Group for Without Walls Consortium. She has an Ofqual accredited qualification in Contemporary Dance from Rambert Grades from Grades 1-8 and holds a BA degree in Humanities and Innovation.