Reaching out with Gestures of Belonging, Aditi Bheda’s latest body movement show

It's all about the power of hands in this Adishakti production
A scene from Getures of Belonging
A scene from Getures of Belonging

There’s an innate mystery underlying Aditi Bheda’s abstract movement show, Gestures of Belonging. As the name suggests, the show is all about hand movements, wherein the characters, played by Aditi and Madhushree Basu, show a range of motions with their hands. 

Explaining the concept of the show, Aditi says, “Even though people often do not realise it, our hands are extraordinarily expressive. When people get uncomfortable for example, they either cross their arms or fidget restlessly by wringing their hands in a bid to soothe themselves. They are in fact, attempting through these gestures, to regulate their psychological space — an effort to move away from the nervousness and insecurity, and find a state of comfort or belonging.” 

Pic by Vijay Ravikumar
Pic by Vijay Ravikumar

Gestures Of Belonging, in the director’s words, explores how a body, in a particular time and space, recreates a sense of home and belonging around itself through the use of gestures and touches. “It’s a dance performance without any dialogues. I was constantly in conversation with Ranjeet Hegde, who composed the music for this piece. I felt like each section has its own mood. While one needed dissonance, other sections needed to be melodic,” says Aditi about the music in the show. 

Aditi and Madhushree have been working on this piece since January last year, we learn. “Since we have worked together in the past, it was relatively easy to communicate. Except for the task of starting off the exploration, there was no concrete plan. We discovered most of the movement through task based improvisations and the piece evolved very slowly and gradually,” elaborates Aditi, adding that the lights have been set up by Anushka Meenakshi and Iswar Lalitha.

July 21. 7 pm. At Adishakti Theatre. Entry free.

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