Contemporary Dance Season, 2017: Padme, Prism & Vortext

Padme

Prism & Vortext

By Anita Ratnam & Troupe

Padme – Group presentation

Padme is a contemporary Indian dance performance produced by dancer, actor and arts’ administrator Anita Ratnam and choreographed by Netherlands-based choreographer Kalpana Raghuraman.  Padme brings together classically trained dancers from different dance schools, training styles and backgrounds. It attempts to explore the hidden and the unhidden; the flowering and the unflowering… The lotus becomes the starting point for the possibility of a deeper experience! In this work, traditional Indian dance motifs coalesce modern sensibilities – they  intersect  to mirror the dancers’ own specific experiences with body, faith and individual journeys.

Prism and Vortext  – Performed by Anita Ratnam

Prism

A personal solo meditation on life, loss and faith. The dance uses the pathways of a Buddhist Mandala to navigate the complex and often confusing terrain of doubt and delight. Through the straight and diagonal lines etched in the choreography, the deliberate slowing down of movement creates an atmosphere of expectation and heightened intensity. A quiet hush permeates the work with the sound design echoing the inner spaces of a woman’s spirit

Vortext

With the dynamic image of the Sri Chakra, the Feminine diagram for the Goddess as a trigger, the choreography abstracts the substrata of shapes, intersections and hidden energies located within the dancing body. Using unobtrusive Kerala percussive rhythms and a constant looping pulse as the sound bed, Vortext explores the mythology of Devi as Balancer of the Universe, Her confrontation with dark forces and the coiled power that lies in the enigmatic contours of the Sri Chakra triangles. Using Bharatanatyam and devised movements developed in collaboration with the dancers, Vortext disrupts and relocates a familiar narrative within the  female body. It is both an ode and a eulogy.