Dance of the divine

For the first time, eight dancers have collaborated to present When the Divine Dance that will portray several avatars of God through their respective dance styles.  This 60 minute-five act performance will be attempted to understand the subtitles and expressions of the form and the formless, representing the definitive presence and a mysterious energy of divine, just like human life, faith and emotions.

With the theme of form and formless (Sagun and Nirgun) Prachi Saathi has conceptualised the concept explores the idea of dancing Indian gods for ‘form’ and Kabeer’s doha for ‘formless’ by putting together the two opposite divinities. In four different classical dance forms - Kathak, Bharatnatyam, Mohiniyattam, and Odissi, the dancers represent the four deities- Ardhnarishwar, Ganpati, Devi and Radha Krishna. “We have not at all deviated from our forms and neither have compromised with our individual styles,” confirms Prachi who will be accompanied by Keerthana Ravi for her Bharatnatyam performance.

While the performers have maintained the sanity and essence of each dance form in their production, how the entire performance has been woven is something that one should look forward to. “There were challenges because every dance is different and cannot have the same sort of style but then, we found a way to synchronise it so that it looks closest to the concept,” smiles the dancer. Dancers Tamanna Tanna and Namrata Mehta second the thought by saying, “We have merged our styles but not compromising our techniques and thus this production is very special to all of us.” Another reason to keep the performance synchronised is by adhering to the beauty of the styles. “We have reached up to the level where everything looks into the symmetry without compromising with any of the dance style,” says Prachi.

While this is not the first time the four classical dance styles have come together, a collaborative exchange is what the dancers are trying to attempt. “Each style has its own beauty and with this amalgamation, we have tried to retain the form while adding a freshness to the presentation,” says Mohiniyattam performer Saji Menon who will be accompanied by Krishna Niddodi. For Saji, it is an attempt to explore the subject further for its various interpretations. And for Namrata it is about the “commitment to our own style which is the main contribution by each one of us.”

Pooja Pant has choreographed the Radha-Krishna Jhula for the evening with Sarita Shirodkar is intrigued by the idea of formlessness, as she believes in Niel Tyson’s idea of ‘Space itself exploded’.