A language of their own

Six choreographers. Two hours. Ten performances. The graduation performance by the 11th batch students of Diploma in Movement Arts of the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts slated to be held on August 14 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall, promises to give expression to the myriad forms that dance as a language can assume.

Energetic movements and wide-range of themes have been the cornerstone of the performances by the Attakkalari Centre students every year. The students who are going to be a part of the performances are thrilled that they have had the opportunity to learn different styles and train under some of the best choreographers.

There arestudent from across the country and each has an experience to narrate. A native of Raichur, Chetan Kumar Yaragera, a first-year diploma student, moved into the city just to join the diploma programme at Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts.

“I am an untrained dancer and I got my first big technical exposure into the different dance styles after joining the course. I am looking forward to the performance and I also hope to learn as many different dance styles as possible before the end of the course,” says Chetan. The course has been an eye-opener of sorts for Maitreyaee Joshi, a native of Pune. “The various dance styles are educational and have been a life-changing experience for me. I am 25 years old and I have been dancing all my life. What I have gathered from the training is a holistic experience and a proper direction to what I wanted to do,” says Maitreyaee, who is a trained kathak dancer.

“I’ve also got an insight into different schools of thought here,” she adds. Among the students are married women as well who say that the training has a therapeutic effect. Bhawna Dadhwal from Haryana is a trained physiotherapist and she chose to learn dance as a hobby.

“Now dance has become an indispensable part of my life. The dance movements are very intense and keeps me calm. I also had a migraine problem but now after I started training that seems to have disappeared,” says Bhawna.

The graduation performance is a culmination of a year-long journey and will showcase cutting edge contemporary dance pieces choreographed by choreographers like Stefano Fardelli (Italy), Maite Larraneta (Spain), Irene van Zeeland (The Netherlands) and Denny Paul (India).

Jayachandran Palazhy, founder and artistic director of Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, says, “What we try and do is blend together Indian traditional styles with international styles. The diploma offers a comprehensive training and includes in its purview different dance forms, contemporary dance styles and stage techniques. The students not only receive a great amount of intense physical training but are taught to have a creative bend of mind.”