Ready for the D-Day

The classical nayika —beautiful,vulnerable and exquisitely adorned even as she pines for her lover — is a muse for many a choreographer. Dancer Sanjukta Wagh,however,reacts to this stereotype by creating a piece in which a strong woman dances in the galis of Varanasi,her Kathak moves a celebration of self-expression. Inspired by African American writer Ntozake Shange’s famous work,For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf — about Black women who confront loneliness,pain and rape with sheer grit — Wagh’s piece,Orange Butterflies and Aqua Sequin,will be staged at India Habitat Centre on Sunday evening to mark World Dance Day.

If Wagh looks to literature and theatre for inspiration,Mayuka Ueno Gayer finds her creativity fuelled by her daughter. In her piece,A Failed Spring Picnic,a mother and daughter are on a picnic. The mother wants to dance. So does the child,but in her own way. Gayer,born in Japan,where she began to learn ballet,and,at present,an Odissi dance student in Delhi,is expected to bring her varied sensibilities to her work.

The other dancers for the evening include Rakesh MPS and Swati Mohan. “It’s a day to celebrate dance and interact with other dancers,” says Mohan. An accident last year had changed Mohan’s perspective on life,and her nine-minute-long piece,Ways of Seeing,deals with how certain events can alter a person’s life completely.

Organised by Gati Dance Forum,the event will also include five short (5-7 minutes) “dance” films that were shot at locations such as Nizamuddin Railway Station (Underline) and Nehru Park (Tarq).