Tagore Twist Minus Dhinchak

Astad Deboos interpretation of Rabindranath Tagores works links dance,world music and puppetry.

Four large puppets,each about 10 ft high,saunter from behind the audience towards goddess Kali on the stage. They worship the goddess with an aarti even as Rabindranath Tagores poem,Your Grace,is read out by theatre personality Akash Khurana. For the 64-year-old Indian contemporary dancer and choreographer,Astad Deboo,this is but one part of Interpreting Tagore,his new performance. The show was staged in Mumbai yesterday,and will travel to Delhi,Japan and Korea soon.

Created to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore,this show uses world music,alternative theatre forms,like puppets and masks,and poetry recitation to present the quintessential Astad Deboo experience. I had presented a tribute to Tagore back in the 90s but this time around,I have reworked a lot of things. I am still performing to Tagores poems Ekla Cholo,Your Grace and The Awakening of the Waterfall,but I have added the poem Surrender to the show. This apart,the music is totally different Italian composer Frederico Senesie and Italian singer Amelia Coni have worked on it. The choreography is new too, he says.

Amelias soundtrack of Dhrupad singing sets the pace for Surrender while Ekla Chalo depicts the modern day story of talent (read: Indian classical dance) suffering due to lack of money (represented by the corporate sector). With Kathak and Sufi influences,The Awakening of the Waterfall is the only solo performance by Deboo.

Story continues below this ad

For all other performances,he will be joined by eight youngsters from the Salaam Balak Trust,an NGO that he supports. I zeroed in on these boys after closely monitoring their growth in the Astad Deboo Dance Company. They have already performed as part of my earlier production,Breaking Boundaries (2009), he says. These boys hail from Bihar,UP,Delhi and other parts of the country.

Deboo admits hes disappointed with the treatment meted out to Indian dance forms today. People ask me how I continue to perform at my age but you can trace my energy to two things my passion for dance and a certain amount of frustration directed at the fact that dance is not getting the attention it deserves. Mumbai,in particular,is only interested in films,fashion and food, he says.

However,Deboo is not new to Bollywood. He has worked on films such as Mani Ratnams Raavan,Vishal Bhardwaj’s Omkaara and MF Husains Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities. I am open to choreographing for films. But I am not keen on choreographing a regular dhinchak dance, says Deboo.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tagore Twist Minus Dhinchak

Astad Deboos interpretation of Rabindranath Tagores works links dance,world music and puppetry.

Astad Deboos interpretation of Rabindranath Tagores works links dance,world music and puppetry.