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Raina Peterson

Raina Peterson is a dancer-choreographer of Fiji-Indian and English heritage who was born and raised on the lands of the Gunaikurnai people. Raina creates moving experimental dance works that respect and challenge both traditional and contemporary dance. With a substantial body of new work including five company productions, Raina‘s works draw on their training in mohiniyattam, classical Indian dance of Kerala, and are critically acclaimed for their subversive and visceral approach to exploring the diasporic experience, cultural identity, colonialism, gender diversity, and sexuality. Their full-length works with dance partner Govind Pillai include In Plain Sanskrit (2015, FCAC), Bent Bollywood (2018, Midsumma Festival, shortlisted for a National Dance Award), Third Nature (2019, Arts House), Kāla (2019, Due West Festival) and award-winning dance film Drishti (2020, winner of two Fringe Awards: ‘Best dance and physical theatre’ and ‘Innovation in culturally diverse practice’). They are currently working on two solo works, Narasimha (an Arts Access Victoria X Melbourne Fringe commission for Radical Access, 2022), and Mohini (Arts House, 2023). They are board member of Peril Magazine, co-director of Karma Dance and are a yoga and dance teacher.

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