Access to quality healthcare is a basic human right denied to many women around the world. Barriers to care include inequities in resources, instability due to ongoing conflict, and disempowerment of indigenous cultures. When medicine creates solutions to address the lack of care, they often neglect to consider the voices of the women they aim to help. To find true health equity, we at Aseemkala believe we need to start at the source—listening to the women as they tell their stories with their music, language, and movement.
Who we are
We are a group of artists, scientists, and physicians who use our traditional dances to perform stories of healthcare inequity. We are activists who believe that diversity in healthcare stories should be represented by diverse women through diverse traditional dances, empowering unique women while reminding the medical community about the shared goal of improving the human condition equitably.
What we do
Our bodies tell stories in sickness and in health. Too often, these stories go unheard. At Aseemkala, we believe the catalyst for change is sharing these global stories through global traditional dances. For many women around the world, traditional dance remains a space where their knowledge and roles are celebrated—even as their circumstances and society complicate their access to care. Our mission is to reframe disempowering medical narratives in the context of traditional arts to remind women about their inherent potential as healthcare changemakers.
Our work focuses on three areas.
- Choreography and performance, creating a laboratory for innovative dances that mix narrative medicine and cultural mythology to explore social injustice.
- Preserving knowledge on traditional arts through research and expert interviews
- Connecting medical professionals to transformative performance-based medical storytelling in a traditional arts medium by way of workshops and lectures.
Explore our performances, research, and workshops on our website.