It’s not everyday that some of the most distinctly accomplished names from the realms of dance, art and music come together to create an expressive, one-of-a-kind, hour-long performative art piece. Dancing Strokes is an evening of artistic collaboration which will see several forms coalesce with each other to make way for an immersive spectacle; scheduled to be held on August 11 at The Kolkata Centre for Creativity, the show will feature acclaimed choreographer Sudarshan Chakraborty and painter Indroneil Maitra, who will let their art converse with each other in an attempt to study the exchange between static frames and dynamic moving bodies. While Sudarshan and his crew dance across the expanse of the arena, Indroneil will capture the movements on blank canvases as part of his live art performance. “The performance moves from centerstage to alleys and corridors and the steps of the amphitheatre blurring the boundaries of art, artists, and people at large, which forms the basis of the 'Link The Arts' initiative of Sapphire Dance Academy; it inspired us to create art for the community, and at the same time engage with them to understand how the art touched them in their everyday lives,” Sudarshan tells us. Link The Arts was of course, the movement which was started by the dancer, as a way to explore contemporary forms and idioms in the alternative arts space.
“Sapphire turns 27 this 12th August; we started out with a form that was so new and non-derivative and I didn’t belong to a gharana or a guru. There was a huge resistance to this entire idiom and expressions which we were trying to bring in, but we went on and it became so inclusive. With this show, we go back to the basics to take a look at how it all unraveled. Dancing Strokes is about capturing a frame of the canvas and the abstraction of moving bodies, which is interpretative and it engages the viewer,” Sudarshan tells us. Throughout the evening, Indroneil will spontaneously try to re-create the dynamism and the energy of the dancers with his brush strokes. “It’s very free, it’s not format-based, and my painting is also like that. I’m so glad that Sudarshan said yes to this concept. We’ll have three canvases located at separate corners of the arena, and it will be completely spontaneous artwork; I only know the colours I’ll be using, but the moment or the sequence I paint is of course very impromptu and will be quite organic,” Indroneil reveals.
Indroneil tells us that the performance will aim at seamlessly merging two vastly different spectrums, and creating an engaging entity, and is set to be quite a rare and unusually designed showcase. “It’s a 60-minute performance, and it’s a continuous flow of dancers in the space, and a rush of movements. We have tried to move past genres, and go beyond the compartmentalisation. We are creating new borders everyday, which threaten the sensibilities of humanity. At times, we cannot connect through languages, or cultures, but we connect with art. You know, I have travelled to more than 23 countries, and have collaborated with so many artistes, I really believe only art can blur these boundaries. This evening emphasises on the need to do away with the polarisation which we see everywhere,” says Sudarshan, who also tells us that during the course of the evening, he will reveal some details about his next project.