Credit: Special Arrangement
A Bharatanatyam performance, ‘Lori’, will draw attention to the plight of children in war-torn Gaza and raise funds for their relief. The 18-minute production is conceptualised by city-based dancer and choreographer Aranyani Bhargav.
The solo dance is set to ‘Falastini Bachche Ke Liye Lori’, a poem by late Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who gave voice to the suffering of Palestinian children in the early 1980s.
In the performance, Aranyani portrays a woman who hears a child crying beneath a heap of dead bodies outside a Palestinian refugee camp. She pulls him out and sings him a lullaby, set to ambient drone music rather than Karnatik ragas.
Lori is part of an ongoing campaign called Indian Dancers for Gaza's Children (IDGC), which Aranyani and Donovan Roebert, a South African scholar of Indian dance, launched in May last year. The initiative has since resulted in 28 performances — including plays, storytelling sessions, music concerts, and dance workshops — both in India and abroad. These works shed light on issues such as refugee life and forced displacement.
The initiative began as a social media post where Aranyani lamented the “apparent silence” of the artistic community on the atrocities against children in Gaza — only to be proved wrong when support began pouring in. Today, IDGC has received backing from over 850 individuals and organisations across 30 countries.
All participating artistes offer their services pro bono - including actor Shabana Azmi, who has recited Faiz’s poem, and the music duo Fragment of Light, who has composed the score, for ‘Lori'. “The motive was never political, but humanitarian,” Aranyani says about the campaign. The response to previous 'Lori' shows has affirmed that spirit as she says “almost every time, audiences have been left in tears.”
IDGC events have so far raised Rs 15 lakh, which was donated to a WHO-affiliated paediatric charity for Palestinian children, she shares.
On June 20, 8 pm, at Sabha Blr, Kamaraj Road. Tickets on sabhablr.in