Written by BAC Staff
Grantee Spotlight: Seema Lisa Pandya and Veronica Simas de Sousa
On March 14, 2025, choreographer and Kathak artist Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas and visual artist Seema Lisa Pandya presented a works-in-progress multidisciplinary performance of Mothers of Tabla at JACK NY. Combining movement, video, sculpture, and live music, the piece offered audiences an immersive experience of rhythm, memory, and reimagined lineage.
The project began with a question that Veronica couldn’t shake: Where were the women?
As she traced the lineage of her Kathak dance tradition, she noticed a striking absence. What started as a search within her own dance school evolved into a larger investigation—an uncovering of forgotten female tabla players whose presence had been nearly overlooked from the historical record.
“I never knew women played tabla,” she recalled. “Nobody told me.”
That discovery marked the beginning of a journey—one that would bridge research, performance, and collaboration. Veronica began finding traces of these musicians in South Asian miniature paintings and scattered documentation from the 18th and 19th ce. As her archive grew, so did her resolve to bring their stories to light—not just through scholarship, but through embodied art.
Where Research Meets Ritual
The turning point came during a Brooklyn Raga Massive residency at the Rockefeller Pocantico Center, where Veronica met with artist Seema Lisa Pandya. Known for her sculptural installations made from used tabla heads, Seema was immediately drawn to Veronica’s growing collection of archival images.
“I saw her eyes light up,” Veronica said. “We both knew: we have to do something with this.”
Their collaboration bloomed from there. Seema began using the historical paintings as a foundation for 3D dioramas and digital animations, crafting immersive visual environments that invite audiences to step inside the past. She continues to evolve these video installations, layering in imagery from her personal art archive—paintings of blood vessels that evoke a visceral sense of bodily rhythm, ancestry, and the heartbeat of sound.
Artists Working at the MET Exhibition. Sculpture by Seema Lisa Pandya. Mothers of Tabla, 2024 BAC Grantee. Photo by Seema Lisa Pandya.
From Studio to Museum: A Living Archive
As their collaboration deepened, Veronica and Seema found their work unfolding in parallel across multiple spaces—including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While developing the performance in the studio, they were also creating an installation for the MET’s Artists Working at the MET exhibition, which showcased artwork by museum staff.
Their contribution featured a ritual-based video performance between Veronica and tabla artist Deepa Paulis—both MET employees—in which they symbolically exchanged the tools of their practice: ghungroos (ankle bells) for tabla heads. Alongside the video, a wooden sculptural piece created by Seema using Deepa’s donated tabla head and the bells invited visitors into this moment of shared lineage and artistic exchange.
This simultaneous expansion of the project—through movement, object, and institution—helped establish Mothers of Tabla not just as a performance, but as an evolving, multidimensional archive.
Listening to the Paintings
Veronica’s choreographic approach is rooted in the cues and moods embedded in historical miniature paintings—elements like moonlight, seasonal details, times of day, or the presence of certain figures, which help guide the musical and narrative structure. Collaborating with scholars and musicians, she aligns each dance with specific ragas and talas that reflect the context of the original artwork.
“If the painting shows a Holi celebration, we use a Holi poem and corresponding gestures. If it’s night with a full moon, we choose a nighttime raga,” she explained.
This fusion of historical research and artistic interpretation creates a dynamic dialogue between past and present, offering new ways to experience classical forms.
Works-in-Progress Performance at JACK NY. Dancer Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas. Mothers of Tabla, 2024 BAC Grantee. Photo by Adrien Tillman.
A Performance You Can Feel
Mothers of Tabla transcends traditional performance by engaging the audience in a multi-sensory experience that goes beyond sight and sound. During the performance at JACK NY, the air was filled with the delicate mist of rosewater, a gesture that invoked ancient rituals where scent was used to create sacred, meditative spaces. Incense added to the atmosphere, drawing from the pre-performance rituals tabla players use to prepare their minds and surroundings.
This sensory layering doesn’t just complement the performance—it deepens the connection, inviting the audience to not only witness the work but to physically inhabit it and attune to memory, vibration, and mood. Even those unfamiliar with the cultural or historical context are moved, as the rosewater, incense, and rhythmic energy transport them into the heart of the story.
Looking Ahead
Though still in progress, Mothers of Tabla is already growing in many directions. Veronica is developing a global database of female tabla artists—more than 60 so far—from India, Pakistan, South Africa, London, Trinidad, Canada, and beyond. She and Seema are also imagining a future where each artist has a personalized sculpture made from her tabla head, displayed in performance lobbies with QR codes that link to their voices, stories, or rhythms.
Other possibilities include museum-based performances, educational materials, or miniature-style portraiture of contemporary female tabla players—an artistic homage that reclaims tradition while shaping the future. Mothers of Tabla is not a single performance or project. It is a living archive, a platform for reclamation, and a call to honor what was forgotten. With each iteration, Veronica and Seema breathe life into a legacy that deserves to be seen, heard, and remembered.
“We’re not just honoring the past,” Seema said. “We’re rewriting the future.”
Featuring
Producers:
Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas
Seema Lisa Pandya
Choreography and Dance:
Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas
Jin Won
Music:
Jake Charkey – cello & arrangements
Roshni Samlal – tabla & bol padhant (rhythmic recitation)
Jin Wong – tabla & bol padhant (rhythmic recitation)
Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas – bol padhant (rhythmic recitation)
Sejal Kukadia – bol padhant (rhythmic recitation)
Trina Basu – violin
Neel Murgai – sitar & effects
Visuals:
Seema Lisa Pandya
Deepa Paulus
Mothers of Tabla is made possible with funds from the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council: Creative Equations Fund.
Mothers of Tabla is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC): Brooklyn Arts Fund.
Cover Image: Q&A at JACK NY, Jin Won, Roshni Samlal, Veronica Simas de Souza Rosas, Seema Lisa Pandya (left to right). Mothers of Tabla, 2024 BAC Grantee. Photo by Adrien Tillman.