Creator-performer Anita Majumdar sees her solo show Why We Work Out (July 15-18, Granville Island’s The Fishbowl) as “a collage of movement” exploring her personal experiences with exercise. This collage includes classical Indian dance, home video workouts and other exercise regimens—all celebrating what Majumdar sees as the joy of movement.  

“I’m not here to offend, but I am here to provoke. That’s always been true for me as an artist,” she shares. “How do we move beyond gym culture and break out of the binary of you’re either this or that?”

Part of Indian Summer Festival 2026, Why We Work Out is directed by Brian Quirt; co-presented with Boca Del Lupo; and commissioned and in development with Nightswimming.

Relating to the personal

A playwright, actor and multidisciplinary artist, Majumdar is no stranger to solo shows. With Why We Work Out, she was interested in “innovating inside that form of storytelling”—creating a work that is relatable to the public.

“Anytime I’ve talked about this show to anyone, it’s solicited a very long and in-depth conversation about their workout regime, what they do, and how they feel about it,” she shares. “So, I felt like I was on the right path.” 

For the artist, movement invokes many memories, such as joining a gym with her mother. A teenager at the time, Majumdar recalls witnessing their different experiences.

“I use these specific moments of exercise and relationship to exercise in my life as a way to connect how it is I ended up where I am today, which is someone who, more or less, really likes working out alone,” she says. “I—much like many, many women—have a very complicated and varied relationship with working out.”

The show also draws on Majumdar’s training in classical Indian dance. Her affection for home workout videos, such as Shaun T’s Insanity, also plays a role.

For the artist, the two movements—dancing and exercising—are inseparable.

“I do those Insanity moves like a dancer—it’s very, very difficult for me to not borrow from the vocabulary of Indian dance when I’m doing very basic things like a jumping jack or a burpee,” she says these movements are fun and relatable. “It’s not something I hide; in fact, it’s a highlight of my show.”

Creating ruptures

This year’s Indian Summer Festival theme is “ragas for a ruptured world.” Majumdar sees her show’s use of music—remixing ‘90s Bollywood hits—as embodying this theme. The music, she says, ruptures time by colliding past and present.

“How does one break their body to make something new?” the artist asks. “How do we, in a sense, destroy in order to rebuild?”

The latter concept, Majumdar points out, is key to Hindu mythology. Because Indian dance moves are connected to cultural mythology, the artist found herself naturally thinking about the “power of Gods” or other storytelling elements during Why We Work Out’s development.

“Most of my solo work has been quite physical,” she adds. “As I started getting older…I started thinking about what are other modes of physicality—beyond being a performer—that might be interesting to talk about.”

The show has given Majumdar “a better understanding of the gaze” on her body.

 “Every year that I’ve been alive, I’ve become increasingly more aware that the experience of living in my body is very different from the way that it is viewed and objectified,” the artist shares. “What if the goal has actually less to do with the male gaze or being watched or looked at or being some kind of eye candy and is something more meaningful?”

The 16^th edition of Indian Summer Festival runs until July 19 at various venues. This year’s line-up also includes comedian Abby Govindan (July 15, Rio Theatre), novelist Sonora Jha in conversation with award-winning author Minelle Mahtani (July 16, Waterfront Theatre) and the Mohamed Assani Quartet (July 18, Ismaili Centre Vancouver),

For more information on Why We Work Out, see https://indiansummerfest.ca/events-why-we-work-out.

For more information on the Indian Summer Festival and its full line-up, see https://indiansummerfest.ca/.