Nithya V. M. Iyer is an interdisciplinary arts-based researcher working across writing, performance, and visual arts. Her work investigates how the body, and the body-in-motion, relate to notions of inheritance, alterity and territory. Using methods rooted in phenomenology with experimental performance practice, she considers how knowledge and meaning-making emerges from improvised and intersubjective processes.  Nithya holds a Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice from the Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Art Therapy, Australia and was trained for 15 years in the Indian dance form Bharatanatyam at the Chandrabhanu Bharatalaya Academy of Dance.  Nithya co-founded the performance research collaboration The Third Thing with Vlad Mizikov and in 2021 ran the Daotown House of Alternative Research with Dr. Zohar Iancu. She currently resides in Lisbon, Portugal, and presents performance, visual arts, research and workshops across Australia, India and Portugal.