Taking dance to a different level

Stage Set

The City has always been lucky when it comes to dance and art. Exploring contemporary dance and digital arts is the upcoming festival by Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts that will bring to Bangalore many international choreographers, thinkers and art practitioners, between January 25 and February 3.

This 10-day international festival, which revolves around the theme ‘Frames of Dance’, has a lot to boast about.

Jayachandran Palazhy, the artistic director of Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, elaborates, “This festival has always focussed on bringing contemporary dance productions from different parts of the globe, produce as many original works and create networks.”

He adds, “There are many concepts like reactions to the first trip to India, ideas on balance and stability, woman and confined spaces, perspective and gestures, rage and compassion, that have been explored.”

The festival will feature performers and delegates from countries across the globe that include Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, USA, UK and more. The different programmes in the festival include ‘Centre Stage’, which opens with Roysten Abel’s ‘The Manganiyar Seduction’, a piece set against a backdrop inspired by the Hawa Mahal and Amsterdam’s red light district, with the soulful music of the Manganiyars of Rajasthan.

‘Time Frames’ is an Arts-in- Education initiative by Margie Medlin, a media artist from Australia, where she has worked with 100 children from different schools across the City, exploring different concepts of time through dance and visual media. “It was a fantastic experience to work with those children. We threw the idea out to them about what they would do if they could travel back or forth in time, and the responses were amazing. One wanted to learn more about history by going to the past, and the other wanted to go to the future and bring back gadgets from there, to sell in the present. These valuable inputs will be included into this dramatic piece,” elaborates Margie.

‘Facets’, a platform of different works brought together by 16 young choreographers under the mentorship of 15 experts in choreography, theatre, digital arts and light and sound design, from across the world, along-with local dancers will be premiered at the festival.

Joseph Hyde, a composer, and a mentor of ‘Facets’ says, “We’ve combined music with dance, to show the different aspect of the arts together. We’ve used music from different times like ‘aalaps’ with electronic sounds, and another piece where a dancer’s movement triggers musical notes that produce music.”

The festival will also feature ‘Transitions’, a unique seminar that will feature 14 films on dance, which will be a catalyst to conversation on the tradition, form and identities of the art form. Workshops like ‘Writing on Dance’, for young writers of art and culture and classes on light and design, will be the other highlights of the 10-day affair.

The venues are Ranga Shankara, ADA Rangamandira, Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Jayamahal Palace Hotel, Alliance Francaise and Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan. For details, call 22123684, 41483534.