Spring Dance ; the Country's Biggest International Dance Festival Comes to Bangalore, and It Promises to Be a Spectacular Show.

Summary

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With a quiet smile and an unflappable demeanour, Jayachandran Palazhy, better known as Jay in Bangalore, surveys the spring cleaning operation at Attakkalari in Bangalore.The organisation is preparing to host Attakkalari India Biennale 2009, what is probably the biggest and most exhaustive contemporary dance festival Bangalore has ever witnessed, for 10 days in February.I think it's the biggest national international festival in India,says Jay, who sports more than one hat on his otherwise shiny pate.

Besides organising the festival, he is involved in Attakkalari's latest production, Chronotopia, which will have a world premier at the festival.I won't say it's completely ready,he says, half nervously.But it will be before the festival.Lovers of contemporary movement and dance will remember Attakkalari's previous production, Purushartha, which extensively toured Asia and Europe.Chronotopia marks a departure from Jay's previous works, in the sense that it is inspired by text; it is a movement and technology-based performance that draws from the Tamil epic Shilapadikaram.Kannagi and Kovalan's story appealed to me as a narrative of a journey with ever-changing landscapes. And to use technology and movement to explore the story was a great experience,he says.While Attakkalari productions are known to be digital and technology driven, Chronotopia goes many steps ahead with response scenography, a light installation and the use of infra-red lights.We experiment with a lot of things before finding what was ideal in terms of interactivity between lights, projections, sound and movement.Jay believes that the universal story is timeless.Unlike other epics, which are all about kings and queens and warriors, Shilapadikaram was about regular people, with the woman as protagonist, and that piqued my interest,he says.If people who are not familiar with abstract movement expect a linear narrative with a story nicely told with all ends tied up, they had better be warned.I find that the new generation is more open to contemporary dance and movement; they are ready to be challenged. Our performance will not have a linear narrative, nor is the story of the epic going to be told through dance. The dancers have improvised, based on their own take of the epic as well as real- life experiences that connect to the epic; it's been a very interesting learning process. I have managed to learn a lot from my team during this process,Jay adds.Chronotopia will connect the epic with everything from globalism and consumerism to today's world of rapid changes, resulting in a sense of loss, which Jay quickly adds is notsentimental, but a change in life situations which could be loss of memories, places and familiarity or even the ability to imagine . Something most Bangaloreans will identify with given the frenzied changes the city has seen in the past decade.The production was created with the support of the India Foundation for the Arts with collaborators on light, sound and technology from across the world. Working with people separated by thousands of miles can't be easy.Says Jay,It's something I've learnt to do, though it can be frustrating at times. We meet to chalk out the initial ideas, then I rehearse with my team, the collaborators do their own research, we talk online, send each other video clippings and the next stage of rehearsals is set. All of us meet only a couple of times.While Jay was artistic director and choreographer, the music was composed by Mathias Duplessy, interactive scenography was by Chris Salter and Chris Ziegler, interactive research and lights design by Marije Baalman and Chris Salter, interactive video design by Chris Ziegler, lighting design by Thomas Dotzler, sensing research and development by Joseph Malloch, Rodolfe Koholy and Marije Baalman and costume design by Jason Cherian and Anshu Arora Sen.Besides the home production, there were other concerns.It's a very difficult time for everyone. Terror, the economic slowdown and corporate fraud have resulted in lesser funding for the arts. Every festival that was planned has been cancelled either for lack of funding or for security measures. This festival is our way of saying that we will not be defeated,says Jay.In times of terror and conflict, here is a festival that brings varied cultures together. The arts have to bring people together, not divide them,says festival director Trupti Prasad.Both agree that it's been especially difficult with the economic slowdown.But we've had such wonderful participants from across the world who have been most enthusiastic about performing in Bangalore,adds Trupti.This kind of exposure is essential for practitioners and youngsters,says Jay, whose journey began when, as a Bharatanatyam dancer, he saw a performance of Mers Cunnigham, in Chennai. Having spent his childhood in Kerala, before studying dance in Chennai, Jay went on to study contemporary movement in Europe.I would watch world cinema, travel endlessly to watch theatre, and go to all the museums in Europe, even though it meant going without food, because you are on a scholarship and have limited money. I wish we could provide our students with that kind of exposure,he says, wistfully.The dancer has always stressed the need for more cultural activities and arts in school and college education. He says,The arts are what you are, the more we think of it as a last option, the more we alienate ourselves from our society and our roots.The festival will see a host of performances by acclaimed dance companies from the U.S.A, South Korea, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, Finland, Portugal and Germany.The foreign embassies and cultural centres have been instrumental in making this festival happen,admits Trupti.While all the participating companies have a reputation, they remain largely unknown outside the dance world, providing Bangaloreans with an opportunity to see performances they would otherwise not have access to.Indian groups to perform include the Padmini Chettur Dance Company from Chennai, Natya Stem and Nrityagram from Bangalore, Attakkalari and Samudra.

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Spring Dance ; the Country's Biggest International Dance Festival Comes to Bangalore, and It Promises to Be a Spectacular Show.

The festival will also comprise master classes, a music cafe and a colloquium...

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