a prelude to moving (PART 1) - Surabhee Arjunwadkar

Описание: A PRELUDE TO MOVING (Part 1)
15 & 17 November, 2024
Made and performed in Martha Hill Dance Theatre, Bennington College, VT, USA

My concern is dance: what is dance? What is the boundary between movement and stillness? Is it possible to be still fully?

The concern in the body. Stillness. Attention. Focus. Feeling each movement isolated. The concern is finding a balance between obsessive meticulousness and apathetic approximations.

The concern is India; childhood, play. There is a structure of routine, framed by the passing day. There are scenes from the street. An attempt at satire, a subversion of the growing intolerance of spiritual Hindu India. An attempt to incorporate (dry) humour; images, slightly bizarre, strange, absurd.

To see India on stage, to see its colours, its sunset, its nonsense.
My concern is home and memories.
Mothers and fathers braiding hair.

This piece is set to Indiamore, an album by French composer/musician, Chassol, who travelled to India in the early 2010s and collected field recordings in Varanasi and Kolkata. He then re-harmonised them using synthesisers, drums, bass and other non-Indian instruments. He calls his practice “harmonising reality.” This album is fascinating to work with because it speaks to the dichotomy within my dance and music body: the recurring confluence of Indian and Western musical language. As both exist beautifully in this album, may they as well in me.

This piece was discovered together in rehearsals. The performance is a showing of what we found.

Credits:

Music from Chassol’s Indiamore (2012)
Dancer Collaborators: Anuarite Gikonyo, Koh Kozuru, Lazuli Leith, Sasha Cohen, Sirun Li, Val Giesey, Mira Fowler
Music Collaborator: Ethan Laird
Ceramic Bowl: Julia Duva
Lighting Design: Koh Kozuru, Surabhee Arjunwadkar
Costume Design: Surabhee Arjunwadkar, Lizzie Gavrilov
Costume Construction: Richard MacPike, Dallas Fangman, Lusineh Wardrip, Joy Stacy, Stella Feldshuh, Hal Price

Lightboard Operator: Lorena Fernandez Camba
Sound Operator: Ethan Kelley
House Manager: Grace Muller