Mâlâ bridges East and West through dance, music and poetry

Mâlâ, a contemplative performance, invites audiences this weekend to listen with their eyes, hearts, and memory. Presented by Brigitte Chataignier and Compagnie Prana, it is a poetic journey where movement, music, poetry, and painting converge to trace the inner lives of women across time and space.

A contemplative performance connecting East, West and inner lives

It also blends East and West, past and present, tradition and contemporary expression. Brigitte, a Mohiniyattam dancer and French choreographer who has lived between India and France for over three decades, draws on her understanding of classical dance and her European experience to craft a performance that is philosophical and spectacularly striking.

Mâlâ means many things: a garland, a necklace, an angel, a place, even a heroine, making it an apt metaphor for a woman’s inner journey. Each sequence reveals memories from the past and present as the performer transforms from one state to another. She says, “The musical base in Mâlâ is strong; Jean-Christophe Feldhandler composed variations inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Erbarme Dich, and we also use a piece from Schubert’s Winterreise. While Indian audiences often look for a narrative, I remind them that contemporary dance also embraces abstraction and layered imagery.”

She worked with young Indian singers from the Nimrana Music Foundation, exploring the synthesis of Indian gesture vocabulary and contemporary Western movement. The result is a performance that moves freely between abstraction and narrative, tradition and innovation.

“Mâlâ grew through multiple residencies, beginning as a solo in France and later expanding through workshops with the Neemrana Music Foundation, the composer, and voice coach Sylvie Deguy from the National Conservatoire of Theatre in France. Layer by layer, through poetry, sound, movement, and visual elements, the piece slowly took shape,” she says.

Furthermore, on forms involved, she adds, “Through dance, music, and even visual art, four paintings by Marc Feld appear on stage, and the audience discovers a blend of forms. The audience will hear different musical traditions and see a dance language shaped by my life between Europe and India, where contemporary Western movement merges seamlessly with Indian influence.”

The performance hits on a personal note too, as she explains, “The performance unfolds as a series of sequences, each like a pearl in a garland, tracing a woman’s journey through history, across moods, cultures, and gestures. Beneath it all lies something deeply personal, shaped by generational memory, including Europe’s historic experiences.”

Free entry. On November 28. At 7 pm. At Alliance Française de Madras, Nungambakkam.

Email: shivani@newindianexpress.com
X: @ShivaniIllakiya

For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels