Summers symbolise a warm embrace. During the spring season, you feel overjoyed. Monsoon is for love and autumn calls for introspection. Winters, on the other hand, are all about festivity and creating a cosy feeling over and over again. What we are trying to suggest is that there are different emotions that you can associate with each season and Bimba Art Foundation, an art ashram that practices and promotes earth-sensitive lifestyles, has taken inspiration from this very concept for their upcoming performance.
Their latest offering, Ritu Malini...The Garlanded One, strings six dance sequences, each representing a season, like a garland worn by Mother Earth. With the four-member classical production, they are paying their respect to Goddess Kamakshi, one who sovereigns and embodies the autonomy of nature. Ahead of the performance, we speak to Deepika Dorai, the visualiser, curator and choreographer who reveals that they are stepping out of Bimba Art Foundation, as a performance space, for the first time in 15 years.
Walk us through the creative process of this performance.
This offering is about Goddess Kamakshi and the thought behind it has been to engage with her. We are celebrating the goddess’ omnipresent and individualistic form and also her form in nature as trees and plants and birds. It is very interesting how the six different seasons have just fallen into place. It’s surreal.
What dance form are you exploring this time?
The performance belongs to the bharatnatyam school of thought blended with the Kalakshetra style. I wish and hope the audience can meet the Divine Mother with this.
What about the jewellery and costumes?
I am exploring some silk and some non-silk fabric. I am cutting and designing it myself. The idea is that the material should feel apt for that particular sequence. As for jewellery, we have opted for traditional handmade jewellery, temple jewellery and some terracotta jewellery as well.
Tell us about the music for this performance.
We are going with live music. We are using the mridangam and the ghatam which is a little unusual for bharatnatyam and we also have pakhavaj. I am also trying to use this instrument called idakka from Kerala. Then, of course, the tabla. And I will also be narrating.
Free entry. August 18. 6:30 pm onwards. At Ravindra Kalakshetra.
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