Performing Art – San Jose

Amit Patel, the founder of the Amit Patel Dance Project, has fused his eastern culture with his western training to bring us an unconventional style of dancing that redefines the term “Indian Contemporary.” Hailing from the Bay Area, 24-year-old Amit has committed to the art of dance his entire life. His current dance vocabulary is the colorful fusion of Bollywood and Indian classical styles, mixed with the Western dance forms Contemporary, Jazz, Ballet, and Hip Hop. You will find the pieces of APDP to run on a spectrum from fierce and high energy to emotional and lyrical. Amit Patel is most notable for his rebellious pieces, categorized as “Bollywood Heels,” which challenge the norms of sexual identity in movement and dance. His love for the abstract motivates him to keep experimenting with masculine and feminine gestures. This innovative style has inspired unity and individuality in both the LGBTQ and South Asian community, celebrating the diversity amongst us all. His work as a dancer and choreographer led him to perform on many national platforms, including: the Indiaspora Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C honoring President Obama’s second Presidential term; the top 48 of America’s Got Talent out of 70,000 acts; the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival; and a performance shoot for the international Emmy award winning show “India” on the Spanish T.V Network, Univision. Recently, he was awarded the Audience Choice Award in the 2016 sjDANCECo Choreo Project Awards Concert, along with Ishika Seth, for their choreography of “Broken Memories – A dance through time.” As a first-generation Indian American, Amit has had the privilege of growing up in a multicultural society. He uses his training in both Eastern and Western disciplines of dance to create art that has the potential to unite, inspire, and educate people across cultures