Sara Mikolai is a choreographer, dancer, interdisciplinary artist, and researcher of Tamil-German descent, based between Berlin and Sri Lanka. Her work opens sensory worlds through live performance, where dance, movement, and sound move as one - expanding into video, installation, and writing as extensions of the same choreographic thinking.
Her artistic foundation is deeply rooted in Bharatanatyam, which she has studied under her mother within the Tamil refugee-migrant community in Berlin since early childhood - an embodied inheritance she holds as both personal history and political ground. This training is not a starting point she has moved away from, but a living practice she continues to think with critically and poetically, contextualizing the personal, the historical and contemporary.
Since 2015, her practice has evolved around listening as a central methodology - an inquiry into the relationship between dance and music, movement and sound, presence and resonance. Over the past decade, she has established listening as both methodology and resistance in her practice, challenging the inherited canons of Western and postcolonial-nation-building South Asian dance contexts, re-imagining what dance can be and to whom it speaks and to whom it belongs.
Her work moves fluidly between the intimate and the political, the ancestral and the urgent. She has co-curated the Listening Biennial editions in Colombo together with sound artist Isuru Kumarasinghe and co-runs a self-organized studio space dedicated to Asian and diasporic dance practices together with JeeAe-Lim, Ming Poon and Furutani Michiyasu.
Mikolai holds a BA in Dance, Context & Choreography from HZT Berlin, an MFA in Performing Arts from the Iceland University of the Arts, and a Diploma in Bharatanatyam from the Oriental Fine Arts Academy of London. Her studies were supported by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation). She is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.
contact: saramikolai.pgihs@gmail.com
*Ths website was created by Sara Mikolai, who holds all rights to the content of this site.
CV
Works
2025 Coming to our senses, by Sara Mikolai & Isuru Kumarasinghe
The Listening Bienniale 2025, Ballhaus Ost, Berlin
2024 Coming to our senses, by Sara Mikolai & Isuru Kumarasinghe
La Biennale di Venezia, The 60th International Art Exhibition
Italian Pavillion, public program: Due Qui – To hear, curated by Luca Cerizza and curated by Gaia Martino
2024 Performance for Narampanawa forest, by Sara Mikolai
Playground, Munich
2023 what´s left unsaid, by Sara Mikolai
Asian Performing Artist Lab, Ringtheater, Berlin
2022 Listening – sound narratives of a dance, by Sara Mikolai
Across Asia Film Festival, in collaboration with Fuorimargine, Sa Manifattura Theatre, Cagliari
The Listening Academy, The Art Academy, Bergen
Le Alleanze dei Corpi - Walk the Red Line, Kinlab, Milano
2021 Echoes of Listening: being with, by Sara Mikolai & Isuru Kumarasinghe
Gangwon Triennial 2021, Gangwon
2021 Echoes of Listening, by Sara Mikolai & Isuru Kumarasinghe
The Listening Biennial (group exhibition)
Berlin, Madrid, Bergen, Kolkata, Hong Kong, Guadalajara, Quebec City, Dundee, Buenos Aires, Istanbul,
Melbourne, Budapest, Makhanda, Kurdistan, Nagaland,Taipei
2020 Listening – sound narratives of a dance, by Sara Mikolai
MFA graduation festival, Listaháskóli Íslands - Iceland University of the Arts, Réykvaík
2019 performance at Ferment: Mutterkorn,with Jan Vahl
curated by apparatus GbR, Uferstudios, Berlin
2018 sakhi 03.04, by Sara Mikolai
Tanztage Festival, Sophiensaele, Berlin
2017 Elegie IV
Elegie - Pharmakon, curated by apparatus GbR, Uferstudios, Berlin
2017 intervention 03.03, by Sara Mikolai
Hamamness. Wiener Festswochen, Vienna
Atmo performance art space, Berlin
2017 intervention03.02, by Sara Mikolai
ACCA - Australian Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne
Shakti-Colombo Dance Platform, Colombo
BA graduation festival (2016), Uferstudios, Berlin
2016 Archiv Nr 7, by Sara Mikolai
Spiegel Festival, Sophiensaele, Berlin
Tanztage Festival Sophiensaele, Berlin
2015 Mourning in Protest,
Live Art Festival - Hamamness, Kampnagel, Hamburg
2014 Chapter One, The Dotted Dance Project,by Kiran Kumar & Sara Mikolai
InZucht Festival, Uferstudios, Berlin
2013 Duppy Dance, with Tracy Rose,
at Salon de Gat: Rose's Casa, The Art of Living, Berlin
2008 Bharatanatyam margam (solo recital)
Eastern University of Chenkalady, Batticaloa
2005 Bharatanatyam, Arangetram
Ethnological Museum of Berlin, Dahlem
since 1996 Bharatanatyam performances
solo & group with Abhinaya Tharpana Palli School for Indian dance, Berlin
Grants | Scholarships | Awards
2026/27 Tanzpraxis Stipendium, Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt
2025/26 Gwaertler Grant
2020/22 German National Academic Foundation scholarship (Studienstiftung) for MPhil in Fine Arts
2019/21 German National Academic Foundation scholarship (Studienstiftung) for MFA in Performing Arts studies
2015/16 German National Academic Foundation scholarship (Studienstiftung) for BA Dance, Contect, Choreography
2005 Bharatanatyam competition „Dit Dit Tei“, solo, main category: Varnam, 1st prize, artist title Adet Kalayarassi, Gummersbach
Publications
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Mikolai, Sara.On sounds of trees and transforming skins, excerpt in: Massimo Bartolini. Due qui / To Hear Padiglione Italia, Biennale Arte 2024, Cataloghi Arte, edited by Luca Cerizza and Gaia Martino, 2025.
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Mikolai, Sara. Listening – sound narratives of a dance. Listening Biennial/Reader, p.20-41. Berlin:Errant Bodies Press, 2021. Republication 2022.
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Mikolai, Sara. 2022. “On the interrelations between everyday life, artistic practice and resilience“ In: Moving Interventions 2: Between Non-cooperation and Community-building Practices of Resilience in dance – through dance – because of dance, December 2022. Translated (from English to German) by: Anja Tracksdorf (Tracksdorf Translations). Edited by / Herausgegeben von: Sarah Bergh and Sandra Chatterjee, with Ariadne Jacoby (CHAKKARs – moving interventions). Published by /veröffentlicht von CHAKKARs – moving interventions.
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Mikolai, Sara. Listening – sound narratives of a dance. Many forms of learning, Year Four - MFA in Performing Arts graduation publication, p.44-58. Reykjavík.LHI - Iceland University of the Arts, 2020.
Curation | Organizing
2025- today Collective studio space,with Jee-Ae Lim, Furutani Michiyasu, Wei Meng Poon
supperted by Kulturräume Berlin
2025 The Listening Biennial - Colombo
Co-curatorial partner & organizer with Isuru Kumarasinghe, Musicmatters Collective, and festival director Brandon LaBelle
Musicmatters, Slave Island, Colombo
2023 The Listening Biennial - Colombo
Co-curatorial partner & organizer with Isuru Kumarasinghe, Bakeriya Space and festival director Brandon LaBelle
Bakeriya Space, Colombo
2021 Choreography Camp 2021
supported by Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka
Conferences | Lectures | Artist talks | and more
2024 Tanzplattform Deutschland 2024
Dance-Making Across Decolonizing Perspectives: Dance Across Triangular Borders – Processes of Decolonization in Contemporary Dance, contribution to group video installation, curated by Sandra Chatterjea, Freiburg
2024 Movement Rhizome 2024.02 International Dance Studies conference (research presentation)
The Postgraduate Institute of Humanities & Social Sciences (PGIHS) / University of Peradeniya, in collaboration with Randolph College (Virginia)
2022 On listening as a decolonial strategy in dance aesthetics, research presentation
Université de Lille
2022 On listening as a decolonial strategy in dance aesthetics
The Listening Academy, The unfinished institution, Bergen
2021 Listening Biennial, artist roundtable, online
2020 Rethinking the narrative of progress in Art, lecture performance, with Michelle Saenz Burrola
Hugarflug Conference, Iceland University of the Arts
2020 Echoes of close and far narratives,
Tradition & Heritage, Kälam, Jaffna
2018 Guest lecture at Decolonozing the Arts, Aesthetic Practices of Learning and Unlearning
University of the Arts Berlin
2018 Dancing in the dark, essay presentation
RAW Material Company, Dakar
2018 Parcours & Think Tank - Postmigrantische & (lokale) postkoloniale choreographische Perspektiven, contribution to group installation,
curated by Sandra Babli Chatterjea Köşk, München
2018 artist talk at Red Dot Gallery, Colombo
2017 artist talk at Gertrude Contemporary Art, Melbourne
2017 artist talk at Multi-Disciplinary Arts Department, Faculty of Fine Art, Chiang Mai University
2016 artist talk at Shakti-Colombo Dance platform, Colombo
2015 artist talk at Tanztage, Sophiensaele, Berlin
Selected works as a Performer | Collaborator
2025 Dear Dead Doctor, by Kiran Kumar & Collaborators
as letter translator
Theater Digitale Festival, Depot Theater, Dortmund
2023 Whose History is it, Anyway?, by Venuri Perera
as dramaturge
Prince Claus Fund Biennial Symposium, Colombo
2018 White Porcelain, by Venuri Perera & Zwoisy Mears-Clarke.
as dramaturge
Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka, Colombo
2018 Speaking Feminisms, by Tracey Rose
as performer
Savvy Contemporary, Berlin
2016 Mixing Performance practices, by Noha Ramadan
as performer
NGBK, Berlin
2014 Khoshbakhti (Happiness), film by Zara Zandieh
as dancer. Berlin
2014 studio disorder, by Rodrigo Garcia Alves
as performer. Uferstudios,Berlin
2012 Ashta Nayika, Abhinaya Tharpana school for Indian dance
as dancer, organizer, costume and make-up
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin
Teaching | Workshops
2021/today BA, visiting lecturer, Department of Fine Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
2023 Introduction into listening as a practice, workshop for children & teenagers at The Listening Biennial, Bakeriya Space, Colombo
2023 APAL - Asian Performing Artist Lab, jury member, Berlin/Bräsen
2022 On listening practices, workshop at NABA - New Academy of Fine Arts (The Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti), Milano
2022 On listening, moving, resting and being, workshop at Sa Manifattura, Cagliari // Le Alleanze dei Corpi festival, KinLab Milano
2021 Introduction into listening as a practice, workshop at Choreography Camp, Colombo
2018 workshop and mentor at Choreography Camp, Kalpitya, SriLanka
2018 Listening to dance, workshop at Eastern University, Batticaloa
2018 Listening to dance, workshop for BA students, Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin (HZT) Berlin
2018 fellowship faculty member & mentor at CORPUS CALLOSUM, curated by Tracy Rose, RAW - Material Company, Dakar
2017 Bharatanatyam, morning practice for BA & MA students, HZT, Berlin
2012 Bharatanatyam, workshop, assistant teacher Erbil, Iraq
2011/2020 mentoring Bharatanatyam students in Berlin
2006/2016 Bharatanatyam, Abhinaya Dharpana Dance school for South Indian dance, all levels, Berlin
2006/2012 teachers training, Abhinaya Tharpana school for Indian dance
Education
2019/2020 MFA in Performing Arts,
Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík
2013/2016 BA Dance, Context, Choreography
Inter-University Centre for Dance(HZT)/UdK Berlin
2015 Diploma in Bharatanatyam
Oriental Fine Arts Academy of London, U.K.
2012/2015 Carnatic vocal music (private lessons), Berlin
2010/2011 Mridangam drum (private lessons),Berlin
1993/2015 Bharatanatyam dance training
Abhinaya Tharpana Palli School for Indian dance, Berlin
Residencies
2024 Nomadic Solidarity online artist residency,
Playground, Munich
2023 Asian Performing Artists Lab - AmnAsia
The Farm & Berliner Ringtheater, Coswig/Berlin
2022 Celestial Bodies - Resonances
Vera Stasi, Tuscany (participation cancelled due to Covid-19)
2019 Ferment: Mutterkorn
curated by apparatus GbR, Uferstudios, Berlin
2017 Pharmakon
apparatus GbR, Uferstudios, Berlin
2015/2016 Kasten Nr. 942n Exotischer Tanz, ARCHIV-ARBEIT VII,
curated by Julius-Hans-Spiegel Zentrum, Sophiensaele, Berlin