April 18, 2025
We’re delighted to announce that Cosmic Dance (Oxana Banshikova and Kirsten Newell) have been selected to perform at this year’s Hidden Door by a selection panel following a special Scratch Night co-curated by Dance Base and Hidden Door.
A unique platform in Edinburgh, Dance Base’s biannual Scratch Night creates a supportive platform for dance and movement artists to try out ideas on the stage, experiment with an audience and share their work with their peers, the sector and the public.
Cosmic Dance will present Duality, a contemporary Bharatanatyam duet that challenges traditional expectations of the dance form.
The performance will run on Wednesday 11th, Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th June as part of Hidden Door Festival 2025. Tickets are available now.
Tony Mills, Dance Base’s Artistic Director said: “We were thrilled to co-curate our spring Scratch Night with Hidden Door. Scratch Night acts as a sort of stepping stone between the rehearsal room and a fully realised production. Through this partnership with Hidden Door, we have been able to offer artists a very tangible ‘next step’ – more development time, a bigger audience and wider scope for the next stage of their journey. We can’t wait to see Cosmic Dance at The Paper Factory this June.”
Tess Letham, Dance Lead at Hidden Door, said: “It was such a brilliant Scratch Night, and selecting from the new works in progress presented was no easy task. Cosmic Dance’s piece “Duality” is a bold and striking performance, well suited to both the environment and the themes of this year’s festival. We’re looking forward to working with Oxana and Kirsten and seeing them ignite the space!
“This year’s dance programme at Hidden Door offers an eclectic mix, and we’re pleased to welcome Cosmic Dance as the final addition to a vibrant and diverse lineup. Collaborating with Dance Base on this opportunity has been a real privilege. Supporting a platform that highlights such a wide range of talent—and experiencing each piece live —was a valuable and meaningful way to curate for the programme.
“Congratulations to all the artists and the team involved in making the night such a success!”
Oxana Banshikova and Kirsten Newell are prominent Bharatanatyam artists based in Edinburgh. Under the Cosmic Dance umbrella—established in Hong Kong in 2009—they have joined forces to promote and expand Bharatanatyam in both its traditional and contemporary forms across Scotland.
As graduates of Kalakshetra and students of some of the finest artists in the field, they bring over 20 years of teaching and performance experience.
Their deep passion for Indian classical dance and music drives their daily practice, continuous learning, and philosophical exploration of Indian traditions. Over the years, India has become an integral part of their identity.
With recent collaborations including Brihathi, MaMa, Nila, and Devi, their work is inspired by movement rooted in emotions and personal memories, pushing beyond the classical Bharatanatyam vocabulary.
What is real and what is illusion? What is right and what is wrong?
Duality is an experiment in movement, perception, and tradition. By fusing Bharatanatyam’s expressive power with innovative physicality, this duet seeks to push the boundaries of what is expected—challenging both the performers and the audience to reconsider their understanding of dance, reality, and connection.
