Playing with spaces

As part of Bonjour India Fest, Lucy May Constantini and some of Bangalore’s young dancers gave a spectacular thought-provoking contemporary dance performance in the City recently.

The Spaces Between was the name and the theme of this new dance form. The audience were treated to two beautiful pieces, both of which played with space. The show started with the dancer giving a small introduction about the beach at her place and as to how she enjoys swimming in the sea amidst the calm waves.

As she finished her introduction, she immediately enacted what she said in the form of dance. She then spoke about how she could remember a group of fishermen going out to the sea and also how a group of boys threw a stone at her when she was in school which had hurt her left hand very badly.

All this was enacted by the dancer and as she danced to her words, the sound of waves lashing on the shore, the ‘heave ho’ cries of fishermen was playing in the background which added more life to this dance. The next performance was a group dance which had no narration and no introduction also. Music was played in the background as soon as the dance started. Through touch, the dancers investigated the nuances of intimacy. They explored the space between each other.
 
The artistes wore clothes which had colourful combinations. Also, not a single piece of jewellery was used by any of them. In simple words, the artistes were in plain clothes, hair tied up and just a couple of hair pins were used to keep the hair intact while they danced.  Every nook and corner of the stage was utilised by all the dancers.

The music and the dance did not go hand-in-hand to some extent. The dance form was unique. Each of the dancers used very tough expressions. Most of their expressions did the talking. On the whole, ‘The Spaces Between’ was an exclusive dance form.