In December 2025, I organized a two-day conference at Columbia University called Ocean of Song & Dance: Emerging Currents in Tibetan and Himalayan Performance Studies. The event was co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute; the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Arts & Sciences Graduate Council; the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life; the Modern Tibetan Studies Program; the C.V. Starr East Asian Library; and Columbia University Libraries. The event brought together scholars, artists, and practitioners to explore the shifting currents of song, dance, ritual, and theatre across the Tibetan and Himalayan worlds. Featuring a keynote address by Jamyang Norbu and panels on performance, gender, and identity, the program also included live, immersive demonstrations and participatory workshops on ache lhamo, or Tibetan opera. The conference highlighted performance at the intersections of tradition and innovation, the sacred and the secular, and the local and the global, culminating in a participatory discussion on new directions for performance studies in Tibetan & Himalayan contexts. Through dialogue, performance, and shared experience, Ocean of Song and Dance celebrated the creativity and interconnectedness of Himalayan expressive cultures, inviting reflection on the power of performance to carry history, shape identity, and inspire new cultural currents.
Please click the button below to see the full conference program, including speaker names, bios, and abstracts:
Constantine Lignos 