Over the past several years, there has been an explosion of local dance companies specializing in South Asian dance. Organizations like SAPAN, Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh, Natyam, Dhoonya, and others are not only presenting the gamut of Indian dance, from the popular Bollywood to traditional forms, but are also looking to break new ground by fusing the classical styles of South Asia and the West. The Tehreema Mitha Dance Company is one such ensemble and is presenting its latest effort to cross boundaries with South Asian American Dance, a show currently running at The Capital Fringe Festival.

Tehreema Mitha (pictured), a Pakistani native who came to the U.S. in 1998, received years of formal training in Bharatanatyam, the classical dance of South India. Purists may object to her goal, which is to combine the classic with the contemporary, but such risk-taking is necessary for artistic innovation. Last night’s sparsely attended 50-minute show featured one piece from each genre of classical, contemporary, and a fusion of both. The dancers were expressive, skilled, and well-rehearsed, and though each of the three items had its merits, the classical and classical/contemporary pieces stood out.

The highlight of the evening was the concluding piece, “Face the Day (Uttho jago),” a dance which exemplifies Mitha’s genre blending approach. The beginning of the performance is absolutely charming. Using traditional bharatanatyam movement, company members Radha Gholkar and Deepa Ponnappan enact the struggle many of us face to simply get out of bed in the morning. While the music might be a bit cheesy outside of this context, it tried to fuse traditional sounds with a pop-rock groove, and it worked in this setting. Once Mitha enters the stage, the story takes a darker turn, but wisely leaves questions unresolved, forcing the audience to contemplate what it has just seen.