It has been a week of encountering and enjoying some wonderful experimentation in different fields. On Friday evening it was my turn to be bowled over at the performance of 'conditions of carriage' at Alliane Francais Madras. Firstly, it was Afm's experimentation with the performance space by hosting the performance at their wonderfully done up backyard. The gamble also paid off well as it beautifully complemented the performance.
The performance itself was a choreography of stringing together what looked like a series of mundane movements from daily life. there was no pretension of any technical or esoteric movement. the stress was more on coordination and sequencing and playing with these every day movements and make them flower into some thing aesthetic and beautiful.
For instance, a movement which starts off looking like two people in an angry confrontation with each other, gradually blooms into a swirl, reminding the viewer of a ballet movement. in another, the flexing of one person's body is shown to magically orchestrate a thud- thuding of jump movements.
The dancers are shown experimenting with various movements like, say a simple brisk walk, negotiating a jump, changing places and sitting down, every piece on their own terms. every movement is endowed an aesthetic sense by the virtue of its grace, poise and coordination.
Each performer stands and leaves an imprint on the viewer. there is one performer who is very nimble footed and reminds one of a rabbit's energy, while there is another performer who impresses upon you his presence and reminds you of the grace of an elephant. one performer gives the impression of being cool and indifferent, whereas another looks like doing even the simplest step, like playing hitting another's foot, with all his heart.
The dance starts off as an exploration of different degrees of freedom of individual movement, then explores paired and group movemenets and towards the end it suddenly becomes constrained when two people get stuck to each other and slowly dies off into a crawl of dancers profusely tired and trying let the earth caress every bit of their tired body.
The end might be an anticlimax to the freedom and zeal which the performance starts with, probably signifying what 'conditions of carriage' can do to you.
The music was an innovative one, mostly sounding like ruffle of cloth or the beat of a tuft of air spewed by a rickety fan. it also seems to have been picked from our every day experiences, matching the mood of the dance movements to a perfect T. the raw and rhythmic nature of the music suited and added to the wholesome experience of the performance.
The movements in the dance were very demanding on the knee joints of the dancers. Thanks to the wooden flooring put up by AFM, the strain and the hurt might have been a little lesser. it was disturbing to see the dancers sweat profusely and gasp for breathe at times. It would be a good idea to have them wear masks to save the viewer's experience from being distracted.
welcome to a dance experience like nothing you have seen, with movements not inspired by epics or shastras, but a dance of movements drawn from daily life.
The performance itself was a choreography of stringing together what looked like a series of mundane movements from daily life. there was no pretension of any technical or esoteric movement. the stress was more on coordination and sequencing and playing with these every day movements and make them flower into some thing aesthetic and beautiful.
For instance, a movement which starts off looking like two people in an angry confrontation with each other, gradually blooms into a swirl, reminding the viewer of a ballet movement. in another, the flexing of one person's body is shown to magically orchestrate a thud- thuding of jump movements.
The dancers are shown experimenting with various movements like, say a simple brisk walk, negotiating a jump, changing places and sitting down, every piece on their own terms. every movement is endowed an aesthetic sense by the virtue of its grace, poise and coordination.
Each performer stands and leaves an imprint on the viewer. there is one performer who is very nimble footed and reminds one of a rabbit's energy, while there is another performer who impresses upon you his presence and reminds you of the grace of an elephant. one performer gives the impression of being cool and indifferent, whereas another looks like doing even the simplest step, like playing hitting another's foot, with all his heart.
The dance starts off as an exploration of different degrees of freedom of individual movement, then explores paired and group movemenets and towards the end it suddenly becomes constrained when two people get stuck to each other and slowly dies off into a crawl of dancers profusely tired and trying let the earth caress every bit of their tired body.
The end might be an anticlimax to the freedom and zeal which the performance starts with, probably signifying what 'conditions of carriage' can do to you.
The music was an innovative one, mostly sounding like ruffle of cloth or the beat of a tuft of air spewed by a rickety fan. it also seems to have been picked from our every day experiences, matching the mood of the dance movements to a perfect T. the raw and rhythmic nature of the music suited and added to the wholesome experience of the performance.
The movements in the dance were very demanding on the knee joints of the dancers. Thanks to the wooden flooring put up by AFM, the strain and the hurt might have been a little lesser. it was disturbing to see the dancers sweat profusely and gasp for breathe at times. It would be a good idea to have them wear masks to save the viewer's experience from being distracted.
welcome to a dance experience like nothing you have seen, with movements not inspired by epics or shastras, but a dance of movements drawn from daily life.
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