Mumbai festival to curate socially-oriented dance performances

A contemporary dance curation, scheduled to take place from Thursday here, will feature performances by renowned artistes on themes like 'voices of the trapped', twisted truths, intolerance and bodily impulses, and Draupadi's account through the lens of today's woman.

The event will take place at the National Centre of the Performing Arts (NCPA), and is currently running into its eighth season.

The Contemporary Dance Season will feature performances by noted members of the Indian dance fraternity -- Rukmini Vijayakumar, Sumeet Nagdev, Mitul Sengupta, Yuko Harada, Sujay Saple, Kaishiki Nrityabhasa and Astad Deboo, the NCPA said in a statement.

The opening performance "Mala" will combine physicality and purely emotive, theatrical aspects of dance, the NCPA said.

Other theme-based choreographies -- "Desolate", "Inversion", and "Agent Provocateur" -- will highlight a bunch of social issues, including repressed voices of society's mistaken identities, the thin line between reality and illusion, and the effects that a climate of growing intolerance has on the body and its impulses.

Another dance production employing storytelling is "Still I Rise". A unique blend of neo-classical Bharatanatyam and spoken word, the dance-theatre will interpret the pivotal episodes in Draupadi's life seen from a first person perspective, the statement said.

"It shows there is no Krishna to save today's woman, nor is there a need for Krishna to be the saviour," it added.

After the initial three days, the festival will host its closing ceremony on November 30 with a performance by Astad Deboo, which will blend contemporary dance and classical music.

The tickets for the show, ranging between Rs 200 and Rs 600, can be booked on www.bookmyshow.com.

--IANS

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