Mythili Prakash: Jwala (Rising Flame)

Los Angeles-based dancer and choreographer Mythili Prakash is internationally renowned as a leading light of the Southern Indian classical dance form bharatanatyam. Prakash, who is known widely as a principal dancer in the Akram Khan Company, is celebrated for her innovative choreography and her powerful conviction as a dancer. Her work uses the nuanced, intricate language of Bharatanatyam to address the socio-political condition of the modern world.

In Jwala (Rising Flame), a 2015 work revived and reimagined in 2026, Prakash is accompanied on stage by a live band. Through sound and movement, she explores fire as a symbol of loss, hope, life, and death. Per Prakash: “As destructive as it is vulnerable and illuminating, the flame embodies the contradictions and complexity of humanity. Fire has destroyed our homes and our lives in unimaginable ways, and yet, in every moment of hope or prayer, we light a candle. We rise and rest in movement around the sun. And prompting every moment forward in life is the flame that burns unseen within us.”