Blending classical with freestyle

Notions of feminity and self-struggle within the society were discovered when seven female-artistes of different nationalities got together for a performance. Choreographed by Shaked Dagan, the dance drama titled Kindling, recently premiered in Delhi after its performances in the rest of North India.

Captioned as a multicultural performance, since the artistes carry the different cultural baggages, the narrative is suited to the Indian context. Performed at India Habitat Centre, this choreographed piece was presented as part of the HCL Concert series but was originally created as part of the ‘2nd Home-India’
project.

“In my first journey to India, I explored the country over six months and noticed the significance of art and culture in daily Indian life,” said Shaked who then thought of a way to merge her art with the local art. She conceived the dance piece and then put up a requirement for dancers on the internet. Applications came in from different parts of the country and she shortlisted six dancers - Ayelet Yekutiel (Israel), Carson Reiners (New Jersey), Birgitte Lundtoft (Denmark), Keren Bossin (Israel), Monika Smekot (Poland) and Kaeridwyn Newman (Canada).

These, along with the Israeli choreographer performed Kindling for about an hour and then a fusion piece ‘Free Soul’ in collaboration with Kathak dancer Sangita
Chatterjee.

The first dance piece had seven dancers including Shaked dressed in hues of orchid yellow, deep red and sunset orange. The piece carried familiar scenes of rural Indian women going about their daily chores like filling water at riverbanks and washing clothes. Though the look given to them was similar it was their different hairstyles which marked individual identities.

As the music altered from Indian classical to hard rock, these dancers displayed free-style contemporary moves. They often started walking in a group and halted to chit-chat like usual teenage girls. The sub-plot details the story of a girl who lost her mother to cancer.
The audience is compelled to witness the varied the emotions of death, grief and loss as her life slowly returns to normal. The dancer could have been any woman close to her mother and the choreography charts her growth from a playful girl to a young woman braving the world all by herself.

The element of water was also brought into play as the dancers carried pitchers on their head, poured water from one utensil to another and even drank water after an exhaustive piece.

Left somewhat perplexed wondering the real raison d’atre behind the choreography, the audience is treated to another dance piece. A much shorter version, this was a
fusion between Kathak and western contemporary
dance forms.

The fusion was much more meaningful and the chakkars of Kathak blended well with free-style contemporary. While there were references to empowerment in Kindling, Free Soul provided answers to the questions raised previously. “The freedom of the soul that is always captivated within our calculative minds was always in my thoughts,” said Sangita explaining the concept. She also emphasised how a soul is always guarded by the body and drew parallels with a woman in a society.

The performance concluded with her final pirouette amidst the contemporary dancers, leaving it open for the audience to interpret.