# Event Details

- **Event Name**: UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi
- **Event Start and End Date**: Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 07:30 pm – Sat, 02 May, 2026 at 08:30 pm (-07:00)
- **Event Description**: Join us for Nazarbazi, an immersive performance created by Moodzi (Abhijeet Mudgerikar) as part of the UCLA MFA Upstart Series 2026.About this EventNazarbazi asks: Is desire dictated by space? Grounded in the concept of nazar—a gaze so potent that being seen becomes conflated with being touched—the performance reimagines urbanity as an affective and spiritual system that shapes lived experience. Through interactivity, materiality, and spatial reconfiguration, the work explores how bodies become politicized by place.Transforming the theater into a four-cornered street intersection, Nazarbazi stages collisions between binaries—public/private, divine/trash, virtual/corporeal, destiny/failure—that cannot hold queer, diasporic, and minoritarian experiences. Drawing on superstition, digging, and multicultural dance practices, the work invites audiences to inhabit space alongside the performers, opening toward noisy intimacy, discovery, and collective presence.Presented by the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, UCLA, as a part of the MFA Upstarts Series. Supported by the Asian Cultural Council.Friday, May 1 at 7:30PM &Saturday, May 2 at 7:30PMKaufman Theater, UCLANote: This is an immersive performance with limited capacity (50 audience members). Admission is free, so we kindly ask you to RSVP mindfully and only reserve a spot if you plan to attend, helping us hold space for others. If you have any access needs please reach out to us at gholguin@arts.ucla.edu.About the choreographer: Moodzi (Abhijeet Mudgerikar) is a performance artist and scholar whose work unfolds at the intersection of social dance activism, gender experimentation, cultural geography, and interactive systems. Their practice investigates how bodies become politicized through place, and how embodied practices negotiate and reshape social hierarchies, urbanity, and transnational flows.Their research is informed by their undergraduate training in architecture and sustained engagement with queer Black social dances in India, through which they draw connections among space, migration, and cross-cultural interaction. They are currently pursuing an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry at UCLA to study the etymology and cultural circulation of nazar—translated as gaze, perception, or the “evil eye”—from its Arabic origins to its regional transformations across South Asia. This inquiry informs their capstone performance, which traces their migration from Ahmedabad to Los Angeles and critiques binaries that fail to account for queer minoritarian experiences.Please consider a donation to help fund our event and support our student creators. A donation, in any amount, will be greatly appreciated and help make this show a reality.https://gofund.me/dab5a48eUCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance acknowledges the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of  (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and are grateful to have the opportunity to work for the  (indigenous peoples) in this place. As a land grant institution, we pay our respect o  (Ancestors), (Elders), and  (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging."  https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events10/banners/be49a450-0eb6-11f1-b205-49d23285143a-rimg-w1200-h600-dc170f09-gmir.jpg
- **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/los-angeles/ucla-mfa-upstarts-series-2026-nazarbazi/100001982542736694
- **Event Categories**: Art, Nonprofit, Theatre, Entertainment, Workshops, fine-arts, performances
- **Interested Audience**: 
  - total_interested_count: 0

## Ticket Details

- **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 0, currency: USD

## Event venue details

- **city**: Los Angeles
- **state**: CA
- **country**: United States
- **location**: UCLA Kaufman Hall
- **lat**: 34.0728633
- **long**: -118.4440614
- **full address**: UCLA Kaufman Hall, 120 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, United States

## Event gallery

- **Alt text**: UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi
  - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/1c3205f8617a9efbe9a134df2db5eb23429a5658b219d8e6a838d3b13bb992a4-rimg-w1200-h600-dc090a0a-gmir.jpg?v=1771663425

## FAQs

- **Q**: When and where is UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi being held?
  - **A:** UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi takes place on Fri, 01 May, 2026 at 07:30 pm to Sat, 02 May, 2026 at 08:30 pm at UCLA Kaufman Hall, 120 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, United States.
- **Q**: Who is organizing UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi?
  - **A:** UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi is organized by UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
- **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me?
  - **A:** UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi is ideal for art lovers, collectors, creatives, and anyone inspired by visual arts, installations, and exhibitions. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Los Angeles, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. If UCLA MFA Upstarts Series 2026: Nazarbazi sounds like your kind of event, don't wait - spots fill up fast.

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                "description": "UCLA's Department of Worlds Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA acknowledges the Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and is grateful to have the opportunity to work for the taraaxatom (indigenous peoples) in this place. As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors), 'Ahiihirom (Elders), and 'eyoohinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present, and emerging.Questions: wacinfo@arts.ucla.eduDefined by a dynamic blend of theory and practice, the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance is a premier program led by a renowned faculty of scholars, activists, curators, filmmakers, and choreographers dedicated to critical cross-cultural analysis and art-making.WACD is the place to innovate choreography, produce digital media, curate exhibitions, develop as an arts activist, and gain scholarly expertise in culture and the arts. With an emphasis on world arts, the department decenters Eurocentric perspectives by recognizing the value of visual arts and performance as modes of inquiry and ways of knowing.We draw upon multiple disciplines and artistic approaches while encouraging students to position their work within broad social contexts. Our courses integrate theory, method, and practice and are grounded in diverse cultural artistic expressions. Topics include art as moral action, body politics, theories of performance, heritage and globalization studies, choreography, and corporeality/embodiment.Guided by an interdisciplinary faculty of artists, dance scholars and ethnographers, the academic programs in World Arts and Cultures/Dance are organized around three fundamental missions:- The formulation of critical and intercultural insights into the nature of human creativity- The creation and interdisciplinary study of dance and other body-based modes of performance- Mutually beneficial engagement with the diverse cultural and artistic communities of Los Angeles"
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