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Journalism of Courage
Ignite,a new festival of contemporary dance in the Capital,had an eclectic mix of performances.
Dance lovers recently got an opportunity to see an eclectic mix of dance forms in Ignite,a new festival of contemporary dance in Delhi. The three-day festival that started from November 10 aimed to create a platform where contemporary dance can be understood and dancers can showcase their works as well as share ideas, says Anusha Lall of Gati,a three-year-old organisation for Indian contemporary dance,organiser of the festival. The event is slated to become an annual feature in the citys cultural calendar.
It unfolded at Kamani Auditorium and was held at venues including the Religare Art Gallery,Max Mueller Bhavan,British Council,LTG and Sri Ram Centre.
One of the most acclaimed dance figures in the world,Shobana Jeyasingh opened the festival with a 75-minute piece called Faultline amp; Bruise Blood,portraying the tension in British Asian youth today through original scores and athletic dancers. The roster of performers boasted several well-known names the Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company,Rajyashree Ramamurthi and Navtej Singh Johar from India as well as foreign dancers likes Fabian Barba and Chris Lechner. The choreographies tackled subjects like Manipurs quiet resistance to AFSPA in the form of Irom Sharmila in Ramamurthis In the Light of Irom Sharmila,the scope of emotions in Padmini Chettur Dance Companys Pushed and an attempt to touch the intangible in Mangaldas Timeless.
Barba brought alive the works of expressionist German dancer Mary Wigman in his 60-minute-long production called A Mary Wigman Dance Evening,creating a tension between his reconstruction and her original,while Johar got inspired by British writer and Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing in his piece called Grey is also a Colour. The work explores how people use their stance to set social boundaries. The rich,for instance,would stand and talk in a certain way to set themselves apart or intimidate others. And then,human entanglements take over as these borders are either surreptitiously crossed or collapse by themselves, says Johar,adding that he had initially created Grey is also a Colour for the Commonwealth Games. Johar,an exponent in Bharatanatyam,besides theatre and yoga,draws on the vocabulary of these forms. For many people,including several classical dancers,contemporary dance is the Other. It is said to have the stigma of being an import from the West,but most contemporary dancers in India have been trained in the classical arts and draw their directions from these as they explore new concerns, says Lall. She stresses on the presence of seminars and discussions at the festival to demystify the performances. Meeting the artists provided opportunities to understand their work and their evolution, she says.
