Akanksha Damini Joshi

“Dance, sing, play. Save the wilderness, within. So you can nurture the wilderness without”.

Akanksha Damini Joshi belongs to India. She led a gypsy childhood, growing up in Kashmir, Arunachal, Andhra, Punjab and more. She travelled with her fauji parents all over India and could taste India’s diversity first hand. These experiences made her absorbe dances and sing the songs of every culture she grew in.

Akanksha now finds herself in Delhi. By nature a kind of wandering minstrel, she defines herself as a story-teller who uses film, sound, text and dance to share her experiences of the visible and inner worlds. She not only films, edits, scripts, voices and directs herself, but also facilitates meditation and healing groups using dance as therapy and participatory experiences of the inner delight. Using ancient mediative techniques of the Sufis, Bhakts, Tantrics, she combines them with tools from the modern world and leads people into celebration. Her personal favourite techniques are “dance, sounds, play. Save the wilderness, within. So you can nurture the wilderness without”.

She continues to make, what she calls “handmade films”: “spun one at a time. Weaving my life. Embroidering with sounds, with rhythm”.

She is an award winning filmmaker and photographer, the recipient of many international awards for direction and cinematography.