Cosmic Dance of Creation by Sejal Surendra Sood

"The act is simple, but the impact indescribable. Rotation and repetition-some call it whirling, spinning, turning... I call it transcendence." ~ Sejal Sood

Sejal dwells artistically in a world that acknowledges no boundaries between art and dance and everyday life. Hers is a stretched canvas that incorporates her movements as a dancer just as easily it does her brush strokes. For her, dance is an all-encompassing experience going beyond mere movement and into the realm of the spiritual. Yet it is also a part of everyday life. She sees the cosmic dance of creation even in a meditative silence.

(Sejal dances at Reflective Echoes exhibition, Sofitel So Bangkok, July 2014. )

Bangkok-based New York artist, Sejal Surendra Sood is a performance artist who uses her canvases to explore the meditative nature of dance and the very movement that underwrites it, breaking it into transformational and reflective experiences. 

A self taught painter, Sejal reflects on ‘movement’ and its serialized narrative and how intrinsic it is to creation itself yet so much of it goes unnoticed. The world is in constant motion, but in all that motion there is space for reflection and Sejal seeks to capture that essence in her art. 

With a degree in Mathematics from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sejal was Director of Analytic at a well-known international retail firm until she could no longer ignore the call of art and dance. Responding to it, Sejal turned into a full time performance artist and found that both mathematics and the arts in conjunction offered her the chance to communicate ideas about life.

As a trained mathematician, her artwork patterns reveal inspiration in geometry, combined with vibrant colors.

("768 dancing yogis on a 4 foot by 4 foot canvas, in the colors of sunrise and sunset. This is the beginning from which the entire piece sprouts..." ~ Sejal Sood.  For Sood, the sequence of 12 yoga postures expresses gratitude and instills energy. If you’re a yogi or a spiritual seeker, Sood’s artwork is a visual mantra. ) 

She first went on to pursue art and dance in New York before making her way east to Mumbai via Hong Kong and now Bangkok to explore different forms of dance, which inspire both her visual and performance art. As she journeyed through South East Asia, Sejal focused on studying life in motion and how different cultures essayed their every day existence.

Though trained in classical dance Sejal found the biggest influence on her was dancing with her mother and grandmother to folk songs. That emotive experience fostered in her the love for the arts reflecting in her dance and her paintings.  Experiences distilled through the practice of yoga giving depth to her concept of movement. 

Over the years she has exhibited at the Think Design Festival, Vikhroli Skin, Warp 54 and ICC Bangkok and performed as a dancer, at the UN ESCAP Bangkok, Lincoln Center, Manhattan Center, Harvard Arts First Festival, Konark Dance Festival, Fantasy Ganesha Art Gallery, Thailand’s International Dance Festival. 

(Sejal performing at UN ESCAP, Bangkok)

Most of Sejal’s artworks stem from many years of dance experiences as an artist that inspire her to delve deeper into the spontaneity of movements. Some works are based on her dancing solo while others on ‘conversations’ with other dancers as they danced together fueling each others’ creativity.

Sejal uses the meditative state of her dancing to express three concepts: reflection through repetition, freedom through repetition, and becoming one with space. 

(Sejal dances in front of her paintings.)

Here's a video of Sejal's dances. To get to know more of Sejal and her artwork, visit http://sejalssood.com/.

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