Enter the Temple of Desire: where the sensual meets the sacred
Fresh from award-winning, sold-out seasons in Melbourne and Toronto, 16 dancers beckon us into a visually stunning world of beauty and desire. Drawing from their training in the classical Indian dance form of Bharatanātyam, they rediscover a pre-colonial world where the divine and the sensual unite with splendour and power. A celebratory world where pleasure and joy (കാമ / kāma) are not forbidden but are pathways to liberation (മോക്ഷ / mōksha).
Anchored in a moving acknowledgement of tradition, colonial loss, and gendered oppression, Temple of Desire is an uplifting journey that embraces alternative histories and liberatory futures. Teeming with tradition, yet subversive and unbound, it leads us to a place of beauty, euphoria, joy and deeper human understanding.
Sumptuous and unapologetically queer, Temple of Desire is performance as resistance: intimate, urgent, and alive with beauty and joy.
Temple of Desire builds on a decade of acclaimed, boundary-shifting dance by Karma Dance including In Plain Sanskrit (2015), Bent Bollywood (2018), Third Nature (2018), Kāla (2019), Narasimha (2022), and Mōhini (2023).
And on closing night, the temple transforms.
The final performance (closing night) flows straight into Temple of Desire: The After Party and you’re invited! DJ Goddess Naavikaran will bathe the Sydney Opera House foyer in remixes of pop, Carnatic, Bollywood and deconstructed club. Join performers and the audience for one final celebration of our histories, futures, dreams and desires: a collective liberation!
GET TICKETS HERE: Temple of Desire | Sydney Opera House
Indian Link empowers and elevates the South Asian community in Australia, by telling their stories and unpacking their experiences in a nuanced and unbiased manner.