» Continued from pg 2 Dialogues in the Diaspora
overtly that says, pay atten- tion to what makes you a specific creature having an impact on the environment around you. SB: So one reason for doing a performance of such a rich practice is to invite audiences into your ecosys- tem. NH: The audiences are going to be small. You get an experience of being con- nected to other audience members. There’s a bunch of creatures in the room and this is how I’m behaving— why am I behaving like this? Why did I choose to come over here? Why do I feel more comfortable? SB: Would you consider leading your audience in an almanac improvisation as a way to transition into the performance, to drop into the practice? NH: The dancers’ idea was to have the wolf pack
dance to. “It happened, I don’t deserve this, it’s not my fault,” were repeated at differ- ent times in the show. Moreover, we wore simple tunics (kurtas), went casual with how we wore our hair, and the composer (Roopa Mahadevan) brought in harmonies and piano to bring the story together. All are atypical in bharatanatyam. As a result, the work looked and sounded totally different than a bharatanatyam performance, but to me it also felt authentic and more true to the experiences of the women we portrayed. How far away can the new lines of tra- ditional arts be drawn? It’s a question I have been asking this year while choreo- graphing on two brilliant dancers, Randee Paufve (Paufve Dance) and Shruti Abhishek, through the CHIME residency supported by the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. This year long creative inquiry was meant to see how the different backgrounds of the danc- ers (Shruti being a bharatanatyam dancer and Randee being primarily a modern/ contemporary trained dancer) would influ- ence my choices in movement and the nar- rative. What started as a deconstruction of bharatanatyam vocabulary has become a truth-seeking journey about lineage, ancestry, and the past. To some degree, this inquiry isn’t as outwardly political as Broken Seeds or Unfiltered , and some parts of it are not at all bharatanatyam as we currently know it. Regardless, Randee and Shruti dance together, and at this moment, that dialogue feels really crucial. In this political era, this is not only deviating from a traditional art form, this is a form of activism. I am not the first to bring new elements into bharatanatyam, or to make political work. In fact, it seems to be trending now among new dance makers, and there are of course the few senior dance teacher/choreog- raphers who have been making this kind of work for decades in the US, India, and other parts of the world. Whether it was back then or right now, there will always be arguments between people who think they are purists and people who think they are innovators. But regardless of those differences, it’s cru- cial that we look towards the future of our dancemaking specifically through 1) build- ing capacity for emerging artists to take risks in their work, 2) building platforms for critical dance writing, and 3) bridging the gaps between funding sources and the bharatanatyam artists who need it. Given the critical mass of bharatanatyam dancers in the Bay Area, these shouldn’t be out of reach, and while there are a few advocates starting to make some of this happen, we need to do more. There are other aspects of bharatanatyam that cannot be ignored. It’s past and present
Photo by Karen Henrich
is fraught with appropriation, classism, and inconsistent pay structures, and these must be addressed as we move forward. We must look at how all of these play into our indi- vidual artistic practices. Our work is moti- vated by our love for the art form, but what are we doing to ensure it continues to thrive in its new home. Are we dancers asking for the compensation we deserve? Are we speak- ing out against mediocrity? How does the western gaze play into our work? Are we reaching across disciplines to support other artistic practices? We can continue to experi- ment with the boundaries of bharatanatyam or not, but we cannot operate in a vacuum. Our professional practices, choreographic choices, and the stories we tell are shaping the world we dance and live in, and we need to own our place in it. bharatanatyam dance company based in San Fran- cisco. As a first generation, American-born, South Asian woman in the diaspora, Nadhi uses her artistic practice to examine place, identity, and politics. Her work has been supported by CounterPulse Perform- ing Diaspora, CA$H Grants, Zellerbach Family Foun- dation, and others. Nadhi trained under gurus Smt. Sundara Swaminathan (Artistic Director of Kala Van- dana Dance Company), Smt. Padmini Chari (Artistic Director of Nitya School of Dance). As of 2012, she has continued training under Guru Sri. A. Lakshman- aswamy in Chennai, India. Her company will perform dance excerpts of Broken Seeds Still Grow during the Rotunda Dance Series on November 8. nadhithekkek.com navadance.org NADHI THEKKEK IS a bharatanatyam dancer and Artistic Director of Nava Dance Theatre, a
Photo courtesy of artist
bring people into the space. So one of them comes up to me as an audience member, con- nects with me personally, leads me into the space, helps me choose where I want to be, settles down with me and says, maybe, let’s breathe together, does something that’s like what we do when we’re in rehearsal. It will take a little time. Part of why I wanted to work with Ian [Winters] and media was to have ways to change what you see and hear at certain crucial junctures based upon what the audience does—what they get close to, what they get far away from, if they’re making a lot of noise, if they’re being quiet, if they’re all in one big throng or if they spread them- selves out. SB: So the environment is reacting to them. How does it do that? NH: Ian and I decided, what if it was like a Wizard of Oz kind of thing? What if David [Coll] is up in the tech booth, respond- ing to what he observes about how people are behaving. Ian pointed out that that is actually the way nature is, it’s not this pro- grammed thing that every time I get this close or move away quickly you see the same thing happen. What happens in nature is I get close to something and it doesn’t know that I’m a danger and it doesn’t respond. And then over time I have impacted it but it’s not immediately apparent to me. I’m not in control of it but it is responsive and it takes me a little while to understand. That’s what I want people to reflect upon. SB: It feels like no matter what you do, the work is so grounded in deep research and practice that it can’t help but be a something. NH: Yeah, it is a something. It’s not a spectacle even though it has a lot of those elements. SB: Well, we’ve learned from Yvonne Rainer that you can say no to spectacle all you want and that doesn’t necessarily reduce spectacularity. You can have all the bells and whistles, but if you’re inviting us into a world where the visual is not primary then you’re intervening into spectacle. NH: Moving from spectacle to proprio- ception in an almost subliminal way. I hope it works. SIMA BELMAR, PH.D. , is a Lecturer in the Depart- ment of Theater, Dance, & Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and the ODC Writer in Residence. To keep up with Sima’s writing please subscribe to tinyletter.com/simabelmar.
believe that if we’re more in tune and aligned we’re going to make better choices. SB: It seems like so much of your process is about sloughing off automatic movement habits to find, not new pathways, but new experiences of old pathways. As a viewer, I felt like I was being afforded a real-time experience of attunement within a structure. That’s what creatures are—attunements in a structure, where we can’t do absolutely any- thing we want. I can’t swing from a tree right now or soar above this coffee shop, but I’ve something to learn from creatures who can. What do you hope audiences will experience at the performance? NH: I’m interested in taking the time to sift through and be conscious of what feels like a human response, what feels like an animal response, what feels like a disorienta- tion, something that wouldn’t normally arise because it’s not a familiar dance response. I would feel like I had missed an opportu- nity if this piece ended up being full from start to finish with dance vocabulary. On the other hand, I’m not attempting to fool any- body into thinking we’re not humans in a dance lineage making a dance event happen. So what is it within those parameters that we can do that opens up perception and an experience of self that is more responsive to its surroundings? A lot of what I do in this directing prac- tice is set something in motion, witness it, then interview the dancers about what hap- pened. Then they reflect and I listen. I study them and listen and reframe what the task is based on that conversational practice. What you see when you see a performance is just the next cycle of it. SB: It sounds like you’re inviting audi- ences to drop into your practice, rather than witness a spectacle. What can you do to help audiences understand that invitation? A program note that says, “Thank you for coming and dropping into our practice”? I for one will come to the show in November and really think about my role as a listener— to my thoughts and sensations as much as to the sights and sounds unfolding around me—as an integral part of what’s happening. NH: I want it to be like going for a walk in a regional park. As city dwellers, we selec- tively immerse ourselves in nature, but parks are designed experiences. And yet, nature will do what it’s going to do whether or not we’re there. It’s in process all the time inde- pendently of our presence. It’s impacted by our presence. We have an opportunity to be impacted by it. What’s different is that the performance foregrounds what it means to be human, whereas if you and I go for a walk in Tilden park, there’s nothing about it
Rotunda Dance Series presents Nava Dance Theatre , Nov 8, SF City Hall, SF, dancersgroup.org/rotunda
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Nina Haft & Company presents Pre- carious Pod , Nov 15-24, Joe Goode Annex, SF, ninahaftandcompany.com
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in dance NOV 2019
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