EVENT DANCE & POETRY AT THE NCPA
If you enjoy poetry and Indian classical dance forms, you must attend the Mudra Dance Festival 2013 at the NCPA. Rhea Dhanbhoora tells you more
Have you ever thought of dance as poetry in motion? If you’ve ever even considered it, then you shouldn’t miss out on this event. The National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) presents its Mudra Dance Festival 2013, an event that’s a mix of dance and Bhakti poetry from ecstatic medieval poets.
The festival, which will be on all weekend, celebrates the heritage of Bhakti poetry with five leading dancers who interpret these poems through various dance forms. But, that’s not all you’ll be witness to at the festival. There will also be discussions, poetry readings and film screenings that will bring poets, dancers, filmmakers and theatre actors together. Every dance performance will be followed by a discussion with the dancer.
The show has been conceptualised and curated by poet Arundhathi Subramaniam, who tells us, “Mudra celebrates a democracy of poetic voices. The languages are as varied as Telugu, Oriya, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Kashmiri. The authors range from poet Kabir to the great bard of Tirupati, Annamacharya; from nirguna mystics committed to the formless divine to saguna devotees who sing of God with name and form. The divinities invoked are Krishna and Shiva, the Goddess and the Absolute. The tones range from love to rage, lust to banter and agony to ecstasy. There is only one constant in all this raging plurality: crazy, unreasonable longing. A longing that is spiritual and sensual, existential and erotic, profound and passionate.”
Catch a screening of Sabad Nirantar, a conversation with Gieve Patel and a Koodiyattam performance by Kapila Venu based on the poetry of Adi Shankara on Friday, a Koodiyattam workshop, a contemporary Kathak dance presentation by Sanjukta Wagh based on the poetry of Kabir and the Varkari Sampradaya and Kathak by Prerana Shrimali on Saturday and round it all off with a film screening and dance performance, O Friend, This Waiting!, a poetry reading by theatre actors Shernaz Patel and Zafar Karachiwala and Bharatanatyam by Alarmel Valli based on the poetry of Annamacharya on Sunday.
Tickets Rs 50, Rs 200, Rs 300 for public and Rs 50, Rs 180 and Rs 270 for members
When Up to April 28, from 4pm onwards
Where NCPA, Nariman Point