Avayava , 2015, Contemporary Dance workshops, Day1

Avayava Dance workshop (Day1) Richard Causer (10 am to 12 noon) Day one at Kalmadi Shamrao Junior College opens to a warm up routine by Richard Causer from Australia. The class was nothing like you have experienced; you get a slice of how you could do so much in a room. The opening routine was slow to heat up the body. The pace skyrocketed when he wants you to roll on the ground keeping your elbows close to your chest and legs straight from one end of the room to another. The moment you reach the other end of the room your head’s like spinning a-really-fast-merry-go-around-experience. He takes to crawling next, a stretch of legs in the air and then on your hands and repeat. It looked like a near-spider-man-movement. And Richard with his swift movement was one minus the web. The third routine was much simpler but all his routines had an element of speed to them which keeps you wondering,” am I really moving so fast?” It’s such a brilliant start to Avayaya a contemporary dance festival in Pune and a learning experience on Floorwork and Release Techniques. Noam Eidelman (12:30 pm to 2:00 pm) How do you make your body a processor of new information to awaken numb areas and increase flexibility, stamina, and agility? Gaga Technique from Israel is the answer. Noam slid the class into layers of conscious and subconscious movements; feeling the body, feeling the space encircling your limbs on the floor. Becoming aware of the information across your neck, hands, back, arms and legs. Letting them come up to surface, float and take form as movements on your body. Feeling you are in a bath tub of water; sinking your body lower to the ground; loosening up, letting go. Such instructions put you in phases of sleep, meditation, sublimity and dance. It reminded me of Osho’s Kundalini meditation where you are told to imagine yourself a tree and shake yourself off. It was such a different technique unlike the first session ; pure contradiction in terms but so apt for the body. You really need to go Gaga! You could read more here on the technique: http://www.swapnildagliya.com/avayavablog/2015/4/13/going-gaga Noam Eidelman (3:30 pm to 5 pm) The routine that Noam taught from the Basheva Repertory was like a gentle blowing of the wind. You are in a square in a floor and you explore forms there in your zone. The routine made you stand with elbow stretched out together, swaying to the back with arms stretched out, movement to the left-right, a neck cut pose with the hands, right-left, sinking your weight of the body. It was more important to feel the movement than actually trying to go right, or wrong or give personal accents to the choreography. The instructor made the class do the routine so many time that it had to look aesthetic; it was such a harmonic experience of delight; like the flocking of a group of seagulls together. Gear on for the day two of the workshops!

Turn off the Lights, Blue Frog, Review

Moonbeam Factory Theatre put up their play, “Turn off the Lights” on the World Earth Day at Blue Frog, Pune. An invisible computer puts questions to Rohan and Rianca who appear to be last survivors on the planet before the apocalypse. Their response is unsure and full of hypocrisy; representing the human race of the present. The play seemed scientific and apt for the theme of the venue. The voice of the computer created the setting for the whole play, which would have been tad difficult if there was more action. The voice in the play played a greater role than the gestures and it was a simple- cleanly- constructed story. The audience was interested in the performance and the dialogue and the delivery was funny like: “What do you do to save the world? Put polar bear videos on youtube”. “Switch off your mobile phone. State your name and purpose.” The play somehow reminded me of Werner Herzog’s voice in his documentary films. Do watch out for more by Moonbeam Factory Theatre! Cast:Srikanth Pingali, Vaishnavi Giri Ganesh, Divya Mangwani Script &Direction: Divya Mangwani

Avayava 2015, Contemporary Dance Workshop, Day3

Day 3: Let’s look at the workshop on day 3 before peeking into day 2, and hop the sequential order of days! Richard Causer: (10 am to 12 noon) Richard took his class to a more creative moment this morning. The routine for this morning pushed the students to use the letters in their names and create a routine or movement dance using a different body part for an alphabet. The class took some minutes to do so, some taking longer due to the length of the name. A practice, a couple of times and the class performed the routine in groups. Then Richard instructed the class to do it with a partner, where they were to synch their movement to one another. What came out was a harmonic, beautiful dance with lifts and cheers from the audience! Swapnil Dagliya: (12:30 pm to 2:00 pm) Swapnil’class warmed up the body of the dancers with their stretches and small movements.It included slow stretches, flat backs, releve` and plie`to the beats of a drumming music. The class gave out screams of laughter, excitement and disappointment when he made the class lay on the push up position just two inches from the ground. The routine he taught included reaching out your hands up in the air as if plucking something, turning around; the idea of a lyrical routine being to give more freedom to the dancers to improvise than strict-step following. The music is the key in such a routine. The class heartily enjoyed the session and it was a good mix of warm up, travelling across the floor and routines; the class was taken very attentively by the partcipants. Tomas Danielis (3:30 pm to 5:00 pm) Tomas on the third day took the class to new experience in contact improvisation. He showed how to roll the body on the floor without pushing yourself, let the flow move you gently; lying on the floor let your foot lead you body, your neck and then your arm. It was followed by a session on sliding to both your sides, sit up and then step out letting your foot give a swinging motion. Another routine he taught was walking in the natural posture of the human body but backwards and then alternating the steps twice backwards. It was such a hi-tech technique and surely not to be forgotten by the class soon! Hazel Angus (5:30 pm to 7:00 pm) Hazel made the class break into smiles with her introductory session of tap dancing. She introduced the class to the basics: heel, toe and ball. Then a combination of heel and toe to the right and then to the left. A whole tap dance song was played and the class was swaying to the pepped up beats. It so felt like a party class; and Hazel also asked the class to move thier hands with their feet which lifted the general mood of the class from esoteric workshops, hi-tech techniques to plain celebration. The third day of the workshops witneessed pure joy and celebration and brought loads of new techniques for the dancers to work and develop. Until next year, adios!

Avayava 2015, Contemporary Dance Workshop, Day 2

Richard Causer (11:30 am to 1 pm) Richard did the same sequence as in the first day of the workshop giving time to the class to absorb the information. He did the crawling sequence as part of the floorwork preparation. And also the running sequence which was a travelling sequence at high speed. You may not be surprised to see people runnig at high speed in the city or doing Spider-Man crawls inspired by the workshop. Tomas Danielis (11:30 am to 1 pm ) Tomas took the class to another level of sensitivity asking the class to touch just the joints of the body and let the partner respond. So the touch went to the neck, the shoulders, the elbow joint, wrist, finger, hip, knees and toes. He also cleared common misunderstandings about movement of the shoulders. After the movement was complete the partner just stood back and watched the partner move to the earlier stimuli in a dance.This is one of the best technique of Contact Improvisation I have witnessed so far. The technique could create microscopic movements of awareness; pure science. The contact improved among the student at the end of the class! Noam Eidelman (2pm to 3:30 pm ) Like yesterday, the Gaga technique took the class to slow movements to open up the pent up areas and bring a flow and a let go. Noam used the same symbolism as yesterday’s class and it was equally effective. Noam Eidelman (4pm to5:30pm) ‘Holding a camera position’ turning backwards, chopping your head with your hands, and facing the wall again. Then the power packed thrusts where you dance like shooting canon balls out of your pelvic ; and you close it by acting like closing the window and the banging of the head on the wall facing you; welcome to a full- fledged-batsheva-repertory . The routine had really simple and small movements which Noam asked the class to repeat again and again until the class burst into a tumult of energy, passion and a dancing-insanity. The routine felt like a creation of a dance company!

Oka Boka Tiloka, a review

A sense of peace climbed to my senses when I reached Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Sanskrutik Bhavan in Wanowrie. The auditorium had warmth which put the setting in for the play, there were three sticks placed on stage standing on one another with decorations on them making them look like tribe-inspired. And there was tribe-inspired music playing which gave such a glow to the ‘to be’ dramatic experience. The lights looked lovely on stage and they were focussed on the sticks. The opening scene has three characters in loin cloths making animal or bird sounds: Tigura-dugara-dugar. The sync among the characters was well done and it felt so natural and just made me feel how drama is different and special from other forms of performance art. Three friends live peacefully in a village setting until their peace is disturbed. The story was a mellow-coated-slow-paced-one. One of the friends falls in love with a girl and she lures him to the forbidden fruit of development, modernization and governance. And he comes back trying to carry out the designs in practice which only leads to a farce. Oka Boka Tiloka talks about development using a self-introspective approach and the theatre group of Mumbai , Kathakar-Theatre, Stories & Life succeeds in doing just that! Do catch their next show!

Bombay Velvet, a review

The ruggedness of a trailer which has Ranbir Kapoor running across a shipyard has stayed with me for quite sometime and it got vent in ‘Bombay Velvet’.A technical brilliance is staring at you if you see any bit of the movie, a new found charm of bollywood , a culminating of experimental cinema. Johnny Balraj is an underdog who climbs his way up doing crimes and fighting in the boxing ring in Mumbai. I enjoyed the music of the film like a delicious dish and it was a charm -coated-film.I feel the expanse of one film was not enough for the director to speak his mind, that’s why the Rosie singing part is quite accentuated in the film.I am waiting for the director’s next film. But inveritably it’s a good make, and an ambitious work such as this is good for Indian cinema. It makes Indian cinema audacious in approaching topics and approaches to showing stories. A film like Bombay Velvet may take time to sink in.Also a film is sometimes a trigger to watching another set of films. The NewYork Times says, Bombay Velevt is an ‘ode to the American ganster’ but hasn’t the director paid an ode to the American gangsters already with his ‘Gangs of Wassepur’ film and has already left contemporary filmmakers of Bollywood behind. Bombay Velvet is an ode to the technical infrastructure of Bollywood to chisel out such a work of art! Go watch Bombay Velvet!

Gangs of Wassepur 1, a review

History and filmmaking will charm you when they come together and Gangs of Wassepur is one of those rare movies. Wassepur is a place close to Dhanwad district in Bihar now in Jharkhand. The rawest of human emotions come climbing onscreen in this interesting historical depiction. The music and script form the highpoint of the movie.’O Womaniya’ , ‘ O Womaniya’ , Sneha Khandewal’s music and Varun Grover’ s lyrics is such an achievement in the film. The wails of Nagma giving birth to a childish like the seen-felt-ignored-suffering of the state , it breathes emotional hurt of a city.The director, Mr Anurag Kashyap is such an audacious story-teller. The local-lingo of the city is captured well , like ‘ dal me tadka layette kya’. The dialogues are witty and are punch lines in Hindi cinema. It reminds me of an interview I read of Mr. Kashyap long back, where he says,he seems to have gobbled the hindi literature in its fullness, and his command is but visible.The killing scenes remind me of an Iranian film at PIFF this year. The actors in the film have delivered a solid punch line like Manoj Vajpayee , Pramod Pathak, Bhupesh Singh, Nazawaiduddin Siddqui. There a scene where perpendicular is shot and called to the bed, it’s very well done, the script and execution part. I really want to know under what conditions the movie was shot, a fast paced story.The local gestures picked up in the film is typical of Bihar. The film is a creation if a complex mind unfolding stories of an era; the director !The performances are memorable and they get into the skin if the Bihari culture.The clime of the space is captured well.The sweat, muck and stink will stay with you..promise..it will be back.