The body beautiful: Movement arts meet contemporary performances at March | dance

Yoga, non-verbal communication, and other movement-based ideas inform the contemporary dance performances at the March | dance festival.
March dance
March dance

This year’s March | dance festival of contemporary body-centric work, co-hosted by Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai in association with Basement 21, will focus on artistes who rely on practices other than dance as a way to articulate their ideas, as creators and choreographers.

The main event is a workshop led by Antonio Carallo, a dancer-actor, choreographer and former member of the Pina Bausch dance company, Tanztheater Wuppertal.

While the “mind and body” are among Antonio’s stated interests, he also extensively studied Kinomichi and Eutonie, apart from Ayurvedic massage, and is a certified Yoga instructor as well — almost setting the tone for the festival’s purview of mixed, and multiple practices.

<em>Meghna Bhardwaj</em>
Meghna Bhardwaj

Say, What?
The festival also brings together a host of artistes for audiences in Chennai, including Meghna Bhardwaj from Delhi, a trained ballet, modern, and contemporary dancer, who set things moving with Edges (Beginnings), as part of her Edges, Trilogy series, combining live performance, films, and textual installation. 

Navtej Singh Johar, the dancer, yoga instructor, and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, presented Abhyas Somatics Lab, which included films by Marcel Zaes, Kalpana Subramanian, and Meghna Bhardwaj on loop, a series of drawings titled Now by Simrat Dugal, and a ‘Wall of Keywords’, based on the discourse’s making at Studio Abhyas.

This week, the festival will host performances by Avantika Bahl Goyal, Malavika PC, Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy and Meghna, apart from a discussion led by Antonio.

<em>Avantika Bahl Goyal</em>
Avantika Bahl Goyal

Avantika, from Mumbai, who also helps run Dance Dialogues, the platform for independent dance makers, will present Say, What? with Vishal Sarvaiya, a dancer-actor and certified sign language tutor. “Say, What? puts a lens on the notion of communication between two bodies that have a very different relationship with sound,” offers Avantika in an email interview. “Sign language is used as a point of entry to set up varied relationships in space, and the role of gesture is deconstructed and de-mystified through this piece.” 

Say, What? thereby lends itself to abstract proportions, opening up a world of meaning that is both embodied and visceral in nature.

“My work throws up questions about inclusivity, privilege, equal art and stereotyping,” says the dancer. “There are important conversations to have , and I feel that the more we discuss these issues, the more sensitised we will become to such matters.”

<em>Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy's Trance/IT</em>
Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy's Trance/IT

The indie route
When it comes to preserving traditions, and keeping a modern purview for newer audiences, Avantika explains that for her, “As a maker and performer, the idea of tradition lies in finding rigour in the way one makes and performs a production. It is about the investment in the body that informs the work — a contract rooted in honesty and transparency.”

As for avenues such as March | dance, she elaborates, “In India, I find that practitioners are simply not waiting around for funding or so called opportunities to make work, but instead taking the plunge and finding their own resources to produce and tour with their performances.” 

The dancer, who is also a performer for Preethi Athreya’s The Lost Wax Project adds, “There 
is a lot more independence in the way one thinks of performance making, and that sense of liberation is giving rise to more work being produced and performed.”

<em>A work by Malavika PC</em>
A work by Malavika PC

Art of interaction
The closing day of the festival will feature Trance/IT by Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy, a contemporary performing artiste, creator and teacher based in New Delhi, who also co-founded the art collective, The Kha Foundation. 

Presented as a contemporary dance duet, and a work in progress, “Trance/IT treats the body as a map of the consciousness, demystifying the complex architecture of the body by isolating and articulating specific parts,” offers Deepak in an email exchange. “It evokes fragmented images and memories of being in limbo, of passing from one place to another,” he explains.

Trance/IT began with the body as the starting point, unlike my other works, where the starting point was always a social issue,” offers Deepak. “The work looks at connecting to the space with a simple act of moving for and with the audience,” he explains. The plan, he adds, is to present an insider view to their process of creating work. They also plan to take the performance to schools and colleges, and offer movement workshops to students.

<em>Navtej Singh Johar's Abhyas Somatics Lab</em>
Navtej Singh Johar's Abhyas Somatics Lab

The aspect of ‘cultural conditioning’ does make a crucial difference, when it comes to learning the basics of an art form, agrees Deepak. “The current culture has become disconnected to the body, or the act of moving, or having a face-to-face talk,” he reasons. “So yes, the art form requires human interaction, which is slowly becoming a thing of the past. We need more initiatives to have more interactive and participatory forms to engage new age groups.”

Deepak adds, “One of the fundamentals of being art makers is to be open to new ideas. So, I believe in collaborations with artistes from different mediums and different cultures.” Among his upcoming plans, he adds, he’s working on a full-evening dance performance, while also looking out for innovative ways to take contemporary dance to as many education institutes as possible.

March | dance will host a Conversation with Antonio on March 23, 6 pm, and Avantika’s Say, What? at 7.30 pm. Malavika will perform Ringarotus on March 24 at 6 pm, and Deepak will lead Trance/IT at 7 pm. At Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai.

jaideep@newindianexpress.com
@senstays

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