Asha Rowland

2026 DANCER FELLOW

Photo credit: Stephanie Jensen

Asha Rowland is a dancer, choreographer, storyteller, and dreamer based in Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce and originally from Chicago, Illinois. Her practice and research centers the questioning of environments and mentalities that perpetuates anti-blackness, environmental racism, and classist structures from an African and South Asian diasporic lens. These questions often activate dreams of future-scapes, ancestry, belonging, and moral and psychological excavation.

Driven by curiosity and cultural intersections, Asha’s research is often derivative of historical investigation and uncovering stories that are lost and forgotten.

Aesthetically, her work is narrative-driven, ethereal, world-building, and straddles dualities of chaos and meditation. She often blends visual art into performance settings. Her experimental movement methodology is based on her 20 years practice in dance specializing in Bharatanatyam, Raq Sharqi, and Black American Street Dance. Her latest evening-length production, The Alchemist’s Soul, debuted at Red Eye Theater in February 2025. Asha collaborates with Lakshmi Ramgopal’s, Lykanthea, as a dancer, choreographer, and vocalist. She has participated in numerous residencies around the United States and has performed nationally and internationally as a soloist, with Lykanthea, and as a company dancer with Natya Dance Theatre. Some residencies she has participated in include the Black Ensemble Productions' IFE Lab Fellowship, the Center for Performing Arts Residency, Unrehearsed Residency, The Chrysalis Milkweed Residency, and the MCA Chicago Performs Series with Lykanthea. She is a 2026 recipient of the MN State Arts Board Creative Individuals Grant.