Made to Order

The piece, which starts off as a commentary on the garment industry in Bangladesh and how the demand from the West is fuelling the unfair labour practices in the developing nation, is not an attempt to criticise the garment industry. “The girls that I met at the factory are happy working there instead of going back to their villages where they will be controlled by their families and made to do household chores. Here, they feel ‘independent’ even though they have to work 10-14 hours daily for low wages, with hardly any free time,” says the 53-year-old, who received a UNESCO prize for her theatre production, Headhunters–Cutting the Edges, in Brazil. This is her second visit to India, after performing Burkha Bondage in 2010.

After visiting two-three garment factories in Dhaka with the help of Lubna Marium, who runs Shadhona, a dance school, Waldmann gathered a sense of how these institutions operate — observing order and harmony; working under a strict time schedule and penalising workers if the factory outputs are not met on time.

That was enough fodder to incorporate a sense of structure and rhythm into her 70-minute production.

The dance piece, does not have a narrative, and evolves as the piece progresses. Using the rudimentary foot and handwork of Kathak, Waldman mirrors the rhythmic patterns of the sewing machines in the factories, along with the designated rows in each of these factories. The first part (for 35 minutes) is a representation of the factory floor, with the sewing machines working in tandem. “We have deconstructed the dance form and I have used it only as a tool and cut off all the fat,” she says.

The second part (20 minutes duration) draws parallels between the members of the artistic community and the garment factory workers, who are exploited in the name of creativity and performance. “Dancers suffer the same problem. It is about more output, not about money. When I met some dancers, I was shocked to see that they have longer working hours and lower wages. That is especially the case for ballet dancers, when they always need to be disciplined and have to follow instructions,” says Waldmann, who uses 12 Kathak performers from Dhaka for the production.

The piece has been co-choreographed by Kolkata-based Vikram Iyengar and has already had 11 performances in Zurich, Germany and Luxembourg. The third part focuses on “optimising performance of humans”. Waldmann does not intend to change the face of the garment industry through her production, but rather hopes to turn a mirror of introspection whereby we keep a check on our demands. “We need to stop fulfilling this desire for more output and wants,” says Waldmann, who will travel with the production to Mumbai and Kolkata next.

Meanwhile, she is already contemplating her next production: a look at the artistic community. “Maybe now is the time to do performances, which speak about the precarious situation within our artistic world,” she says.

Made in Bangladesh will be staged at Kamani Auditorium on January 17 at 9 pm. For donor passes, visit: http://www.ignitedancefestival.com or call 9582732689