Vanessa Maria Mirza is a choreographer, visual artist, researcher, and curator based in Kolkata, India. She is the Founder-Director of Dance Bridges Festival, a biennial international dance festival showcasing cutting-edge contemporary choreography (2014-till present). She has represented Dance Bridges Festival at international forums such as the British Dance Edition 2016 in Cardiff, UK, TPAM 2017-Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, Japan, and American Dance Recon 2017 (New York, Philadelphia & Lee). She has trained at Taipei National University of the Arts in the Master of Fine Arts (Choreography) program. Vanessa also holds a Bachelor’s degree Business Administration from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. Her recent choreographic works include ‘Dream Realms’, ‘Under Face’, ‘I Do Care About You’, ‘Her Song’. ‘Somebody’ and ‘Why Not’. She has presented her dance research at the University of Madison in Wisconsin, USA and at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in Angers, France.