UCLA Arts Commencement 2025: Graduate Student Speaker Gurmukhi Bevli

On Saturday, June 14, hundreds of students, faculty, staff, friends, and family gathered in UCLA's Dickson Court to celebrate this year’s graduating class. Gifted with beautiful, sunny weather, commencement was a joyous occasion where the many accomplishments of the Class of 2025 were acknowledged and celebrated. Each year, one student is selected from each the graduate and undergraduate classes to speak at the commencement ceremony. This honor rotates across the four departments of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, and this year we had a graduate speaker from the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, Gurmukhi Bevli. Bevli is a choreographer, performer, and educator whose work explores the intersections of memory, migration, and South Asian diasporic identity. Initially arriving at UCLA as a neuroscience major, she discovered her calling in dance through the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, where she later returned for her M.F.A. in Choreographic Inquiry. Her research and choreography examine how generational memory is carried through the body, particularly in relation to the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan. Bevli’s thesis work, Thread Count, challenged audience perception through spatial disruption, while her teaching practice—ranging from modern dance to Bharatanatyam—centers experimentation, embodiment, and the choreography of everyday life. The views and opinions expressed during the ceremony are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the university. ABOUT UCLA ARTS One of 12 prestigious professional schools at UCLA, the School of the Arts and Architecture is the top ranked arts school in the nation and offers leading programs in four degree-granting departments: Architecture and Urban Design, Art, Design | Media Arts, and World Arts and Cultures/Dance. → https://www.instagram.com/uclaarts/