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NOW IS |
| An event that might have stood cancelled for an unknown period of time owing to Shiv Sena chief Bal Thakeray's public funeral on November 18 2012, was fortunately salvaged the very following day by the NCPA. Those of us who could make it to the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, were in for a visual and an aural treat that evening. Kathak exponent Aditi Mangaldas describes NOW IS as:
'A simultaneous dialogue between the three art forms of painting, music, and dance that explores the timeless present and is built around the central question: Can one live creatively, live in the 'Now'?'
Different parts of a single painting by German visual artiste Siegward Sprotte have been filmed in extreme close-ups by filmmakers Surajit Sarkar and Vani Subramanian to reveal deeper nuances and which also give an immediacy to each brush stroke . These images are projected onto three panels across the stage space. Dancer-choreographer Aditi Mangaldas and her two co-dancers Dhirendra Tiwari and Piyush Chauhan beautifully glide across the stage in slowness and speed alternatively, sometimes simultaneously, not interpreting the painting but responding to its inherent timeless quality.
The dance is enhanced by Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan's musical response to the present moment. Kabir's poetry and Sufi lyrics are interspersed with strains of the sarod, tanpura and alaap. Kimie Nakano's costumes with their clean and beautiful cuts as well as Fabiana Piccioli's light design executed with finesse by Govind Singh Yadav, add to the coming together of all these elements.
To interpret a dance like this takes away the multiple meanings it has to offer. I have endeavored therefore to write my immediate personal experience, focussing on the images that stayed on with me, much after the performance.
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NOW IS |
| Two dancers, limbs intertwined, weaving in and out together
A third dancer appears from the rear darkness to reveal a magnificence and to disappear once again
A backdrop of hues of blue and green and the spatiality of white
Pools of light appear and disappear with unpredictable and practiced ease
Three dancers explore rhythms with footwork, dynamic movements and postures, dazzle with the flawlessness of their kathak technique with moments of absolute stillness in-between
Solos merging into trios and sudden five-second duets; together yet separate entities, the dancers complement each other
A seamless merging of the classical and the contemporary language of dance.
Which is which? Difficult to say
Moments of in-betweenness when dancers pause just before the climax of the rhythmic compositions and just be rather than 'show'
The precious moments of vulnerability
Emotions not quite depicted but hinted at
Hints of colour, hints of a feeling, hints of a tune. A song remains unsung, there is half a melody...
A painting is sung, an alaap is danced, a song is painted, brushstrokes embody the vibrations
The infinite finite moments of breakage
of memory, of belonging, of severance
A river, colour ,texture ,silence ,sound, motion, stillness, waves
The dancers and the dance are one
Now Is.
Sanjukta Wagh's extensive training in Kathak and in Hindustani Music along with her study of Literature and Theatre has led her to an interdisciplinary mode of work as a choreographer, performer and teacher. Her year-long experience at the Laban centre of dance, London has been pivotal in redefining her form and approach. She runs ''Beej'', an interdisciplinary initiative for performance and movement research.
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