IGNITE - FOURTH AND FINAL AND HIP HIP HURRAH: 13 November 2010

A large part of the last day of Ignite was dedicated to a Network seminar exploring the needs and possibilities of the dance community in India to create a network amongst themselves. A network that would not look only at the issues we face while creating work on a daily basis – infrastructure, finances, subsidies, sustainability and more – but also at points that facilitate the activity of dance and dancers – policy, representation, support, post-career situations, sharing of information and resources – all of which happen on an occasional basis, but there is no concerted collective voice of the dance community that can speak, stand up and be counted.

THIRD DAY AT IGNITE – TWO THUMBS UP, ONE DOWN: 12 November 2010

A short day for me today at Ignite. I went in only in the afternoon missing the morning paper presentations. Post-lunch, moderated a conversation with Padmini Chettur, Veena Basavarajaiah and Sudesh Adhana. Since the last has not shown his work yet, it was really difficult for the audience to engage with him, and most of the questions at the end of the session went – understandably and most deservedly – to Padmini, touching on questions of tautness and tension, audience behaviour, whether a choreographer’s note is necessary or not… all to do with her work, but many also questions surrounding the performance, perception and development of an Indian contemporary dance.

SECOND DAY AT IGNITE – HO-HUM AND PADMINI CHETTUR: 11 November 2010

Padmini Chettur's Pushed

Hmm! An uninspiring day at best and a ‘what-were-the-organisers-thinking!’ day at worst. But rounded off by an extraordinarily powerful performance by the Padmini Chettur Dance Company from Chennai – I forgave everything after that experience!

WATCHING THE SHOBANA JEYASINGH DANCE COMPANY: 10 November 2010

 

Kicking off the Ignite Festival at Kamani Auditorium yesterday evening, Anusha Lall – Festival Director – put things in perspective. Ignite, she said, was a festival centred on contemporary ‘Indian’ dance – both by artists from within India and abroad. All the artists and performances engage with Indian-ness in a variety of ways: either experimenting with traditional forms, or forging connections with other cultures/countries or – as in the case of Shobana Jeyasingh (though this is not the only thread that draws her in) – working with Asian/Indian experience in a different culture, drawing on forms both remembered and found.

Shobana Jeyasingh is a dance icon in the UK. And unfortunately, though I lived there for three years, I was in Wales – far away from the dance circuit that her company moves in. So never had the opportunity to see her work. But hear about it constantly, I did. And this is her first tour to India since she set up her company in 1988. By training she is a Bharatnatyam dancer, who moved from Chennai to London. But her work situates itself squarely in a very different socio-cultural and political experience. The double bill we were witness to yesterday – Faultline and Bruise Blood – are both inspired by extremely unusual – even harsh – triggers for dance as we in India would see it.