Venuri Perera is an independent choreographer and performance artist from Colombo. Her work inhabits a space between dance, theatre, performance art and ritual. She explores the power dynamics of visibility and opacity by embodying strategies to destabilise and disorient how we perceive the “other.” Her solo and collaborative works deal with violent nationalism, border rituals, colonial heritage, power dynamics of class, and have been invited to international festivals since 2008, including Prospect Triennale New Orleans ‘24, NgBk Berlin Art Week ‘23, National Arts Festival South Africa ‘25,‘22, Serendipity Festival Goa ‘19 (HH Arts Spaces) Art Basel Parkour ‘18, Asia Triennial Manchester ‘18, Theaterspektakel Zurich ‘13, ‘15,’17, Ignite Delhi ‘15, Colombo Art Biennale ‘16, Dhaka Art Summit ‘16 ( HH Arts Spaces), SIFA Singapore ‘15, Colomboscope ‘14,’19,’23, Kyoto Experiment ‘17. She was a resident at GATI, Delhi in 2014 where she created the solo ‘Traitriot’. Perera has collaborated closely with artists including Eisa Jocson (PH) (‘22 – currently touring Magic Maids) Geumhyung Jeong (SK), Natsuko Tezuka (JP), Zwoisy Mears- Clarke (JM) She has collaborated in theatre and dance works including with Amanda Piña – (Kunstenfestival, Vienna, 22/23) Theatre Garasi ( Japan, Indonesia – 2019/2020) Sankar Venkatewaran (Water Station – Kyoto ‘16) Gerda König – (Sri Lanka, Germany‘11-’13 ) Toby Gough (Edinburgh Festival ‘05, 06) Ruwanthi De Chickera/Abhilash Pillai – (Tokyo ‘04, NSD Delhi ‘05). Classically trained in Kandyan dance and a student of Vajira and Upekha Chitrasena, Venuri was a member of the Chitrasena Dance Company. She conceived and curated the programs of the Colombo Dance Platform (2016-20, Goethe-Institut), including three choreography camps and an international festival ‘Shakti – a platform for the single body’ in 2016. A graduate of DAS (arts) Theatre ‘20, Venuri is currently based between Amsterdam and Colombo.