Arjunan Puveendran

About

Arjunan’s work focuses on the intersection of music, dance, rhythm and dialogue. As a vocalist, percussionist and speaker, he has presented various arts projects including: Ātma: Music and Movement (2017), Bhakti: Art and Devotion (2018), Bhoomi: Woman and Earth (2019) and Re-imagining Dance: Brown Bodies on the Global Stage (2020). He also featured in the multi-award-winning play Counting and Cracking (2019) by Belvoir and Co-Curious. He staged Bhoomi: Our Country with collaborator Indu Balachandran for Sydney Festival 2021 at Seymour Centre. Arjunan was named by the Australia Council for the Arts, as one of its cohort of 25 Arts Leaders for 2020.

Now based in Sydney, Arjunan trained in South Indian classical vocals and percussion under the auspices of Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy in Melbourne. He continues to undertake further studies with leading South Indian classical musicians based in Chennai, India.

Arjunan’s body of work also comprises music and rhythmic composition, particularly for dancers including the internationally acclaimed Christopher Gurusamy and Seeta Patel. He has produced and performed works as part of The Taste of India, a long running project supported by Multicultural Arts Victoria with performances for the Darebin Music Feast, Piers Festival and Castlemaine Festival.  Recently, he featured alongside veteran dancer Anandavalli in the dance film Anthi supported by Australia Council.