Johanna Hongell-Darsee

🪔 About

Johanna Hongell-Darsee is a Finnish-born performing artist with a diverse background in theater, dance, and music. She began her performing arts career in 1986. Hongell-Darsee received her education in mime and theater at the Lecoq School in Paris, France. She later pursued studies in Classical Indian Dance, specifically Bharatanatyam, in India, learning from Gurus Sri Kama Dev and Smt Savithri Jagannatha Rao. She further specialized in Abhinaya, the expressive aspect of the dance, under the tutelage of Guru Kalanidhi Narayanan and her students Uma Maheshwari and Nityakalyani Vaydjanathan. Before relocating to New Mexico, USA, in 2001, Hongell-Darsee led a dance and theater company called Teater Bava in Malmö, Sweden. She has performed and toured extensively for over 30 years across Scandinavia, Europe, India, and the USA, participating in various festivals including Avignon in France and Tampere in Finland. She has also shared her knowledge of Bharatanatyam as a guest artist at the University of New Mexico's Department of Theater and Dance. In New Mexico, she is primarily known for her musical duo with Scott Darsee, performing early traditional Scandinavian and Celtic ballads and tales. Their work involves researching, editing, translating, adapting, and arranging traditional melodies and stories. Together, they have been inducted as scholars by the New Mexico Humanities Council in 2005. Awards & Honours: New Mexico Music Awards Nomination (Best Vocal Performance) (2014), New Mexico Music Awards Nomination (Best Vocal Performance) (2016), New Mexico Music Awards Nomination (Best Vocal Performance) (2020).