CHENNAI: Holding in combination a host of younger contemporary dancers in rapt attention, distinguished choreographer and Yoga trainer Navtej Singh Johar describes how much he loathes traditional Bharatanatyam. An exponent of the manner himself — but even so being a Kalakshetra alumnus and a Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee — Johar’s talk is part of Goethe Institut’s ongoing competition of contemporary dance, ‘March Dance’. His context is a tradition of dance he has devised using somatics – a way of re-educating bodywork and movement to a dancer, using their very own interior perception.
“The means we have now been trained in artwork and poetry to this point has been for instruction, with out a room for recommendation. For example, if I am performing Shringara rasa, it's at all times perceived at as my atma pining for the paramatma, with none of what I think resonating inside of my body. The thought such training boils down to is, don’t agree with the sensations on your body,” says Johar, whose pursuit to internalise each and every exterior movement and to find pleasure in it, led him to dive into somatics and use it in the Yoga and dance he taught his scholars. Johar’s taste and training that breaks out of Yoga and Bharatanatyam’s obsessive perfection of the form and appearance, culminated in Abhyas Somatics Lab, the crowd that presented glimpses of this tradition thru guided instructions, at Max Mueller Bhavan on Thursday.
March Dance brings to the fore artists whose repertoire emphasises on advanced body work and choice techniques more than the type of dance itself, lending to them a singular taste that takes from every in their private sensibilities.
Mumbai-based Avantika Bahl, started learning signal language in 2015 and realised the potential it had when incorporated with dance and movement, and the end result used to be her production, ‘Say, What?’ by which she joins hearing-impaired dancer Vishal Sarvaiya in an impressive mix of silence, verbal exchange, movement and deliberation. “I wanted to work with a deaf dancer as a result of I noticed that their relationship with sound would be totally different from mine,” says Bahl. “I felt I may push this whole tale of language and dialog rooted in hand movement, without any sound. Personally, this piece is in reality an answer to my own hunger for equal and inclusive arts,” she provides.
March Dance, which is on till March 24, additionally includes a workshop by means of dancer and choreographer Antonio Carallo, who has labored with the legendary Pina Bausch. Performances include ‘Ringarotus’ a three-part piece set in long-form drawings by means of artist, illustrator and performer Malavika PC and ‘Trance/IT’, a modern dance piece by means of Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy.
“The means we have now been trained in artwork and poetry to this point has been for instruction, with out a room for recommendation. For example, if I am performing Shringara rasa, it's at all times perceived at as my atma pining for the paramatma, with none of what I think resonating inside of my body. The thought such training boils down to is, don’t agree with the sensations on your body,” says Johar, whose pursuit to internalise each and every exterior movement and to find pleasure in it, led him to dive into somatics and use it in the Yoga and dance he taught his scholars. Johar’s taste and training that breaks out of Yoga and Bharatanatyam’s obsessive perfection of the form and appearance, culminated in Abhyas Somatics Lab, the crowd that presented glimpses of this tradition thru guided instructions, at Max Mueller Bhavan on Thursday.
March Dance brings to the fore artists whose repertoire emphasises on advanced body work and choice techniques more than the type of dance itself, lending to them a singular taste that takes from every in their private sensibilities.
Mumbai-based Avantika Bahl, started learning signal language in 2015 and realised the potential it had when incorporated with dance and movement, and the end result used to be her production, ‘Say, What?’ by which she joins hearing-impaired dancer Vishal Sarvaiya in an impressive mix of silence, verbal exchange, movement and deliberation. “I wanted to work with a deaf dancer as a result of I noticed that their relationship with sound would be totally different from mine,” says Bahl. “I felt I may push this whole tale of language and dialog rooted in hand movement, without any sound. Personally, this piece is in reality an answer to my own hunger for equal and inclusive arts,” she provides.
March Dance, which is on till March 24, additionally includes a workshop by means of dancer and choreographer Antonio Carallo, who has labored with the legendary Pina Bausch. Performances include ‘Ringarotus’ a three-part piece set in long-form drawings by means of artist, illustrator and performer Malavika PC and ‘Trance/IT’, a modern dance piece by means of Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy.
Dancers look inward for fresh twist to old art
![Dancers look inward for fresh twist to old art]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
March 23, 2018
Rating:
