A joint project of the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai & Basement 21
A joint project of the
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Chennai & Basement 21
As with all its projects, this
5th edition of March Dance in 2023 raises the question of ‘
the contemporary’ and how to define it. At times, this question is raised through views from the outside. Sometimes it comes as a response to the ‘
tradition’ we are often surrounded by.
No matter from which perspective we arrive, this sometimes sometimes-loaded term, the aesthetic and politic it represents, requires constant debate and rethinking before we can possibly even conceive of a context for viewing - a viewing that can be not merely informed, but interrogative. One in which references and connections between the arts and across cultures can be made.
March Dance 2023 raises the question and from a range of differing perspectives challenges our understanding of dance-making while promoting enquiry into the creative process as a whole.
In a coming together of improvisation, performance and research, this edition of the festival seeks to make the questions around dance and the body more pertinent to how we locate ourselves as critical beings, constantly redefining our relationships to history, politics and practice.
March Dance 2023 aims to bring together a series of performances, workshops and discussions that address the following questions:
- How can artistic Reconstruction become a tool to reframe our position with regard to histories?
- What is the role of Improvisation in building a dynamic language of the body that is constantly evolving new knowledges?
- How does a specific Site inscribe itself on the body and affect its aesthetics and politics.
- Why is Interdisciplinarity important in nurturing the growth of artistic practices and their environments?
March Dance 2023 invites artists and researchers from within and across borders to Chennai in March 2023 to engage with these questions, to reflect upon what constitutes the body’s relationship to a place and its people.
March Dance 2023 - Season 5 – Schedule
Shows
Sessions
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Nobody Cares - Deepak Kurki Sivaswamy (solo)
Friday, 17.03.2023 , 7:00 PM
© Goethe-Institut Chennai
Deepak Kurki Shivaswamy will confront us with a piece in which he explores various effects of the chaotic character of social signifiers, as they are attached to an individual who was born in a Hindu family, raised in a Muslim neighborhood and attender a Catholic school. In the critical, but also intimistic piece Nobody cares, the author, who completed his postgraduate studies at S.E.A.D. (Austria), uses movement as a tool in the exploration of social relations and hegemonies, even though they seem to be beyond reason.
Credits:
Choreographer and Dancer Deepak Kurki
Music Abhijeet Tambe and Carmen Habanera
Special thanks to Play Practice for studio space
Photo credits: MatijaLukic
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Meepao - Surjit Nongmeikapam (ensemble)
Saturday, 18.03.2023 , 7:00 PM
© Goethe-Institut Chennai
Meepao is a dance in celebration of all the departed, especially the ones who are deemed inconsequential. Using minimal movements, Meepao invites the spectator into a space where dancers and non-dancers alike can join in this celebration. It begins with simple movements of the feet. The movements repeat, as though creating its own ritual, and finds its depth and textures through the synchronicity of bodies dancing together to the beat of live music. They slowly transcend into a liminal space where the living (mee) convey a message (pao) of harmony.
Credits
Concept/Scenography/Choreography/Performance - Surjit Nongmeikapam
Ensemble: Yengkokpam Purnima Devi, Senjam Hemjit (Tombi), Sumeet Sagolsem, Swami Aribam, Yanglem Luckyson, Bicky Chungkham
Live Music - Heisnam Shantanu Singh
Light - Surjit Nongmeikapam
Rehearsal Director - Joshua Sailo
Costume - Yengkokpam Purnima Devi
Production Manager - Suresh Kiran Singh Khundrakpam (Tomba)
Documentation - Tushar Nongthombam
Supported by
Danse Èlargie, BNP Paribas, Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC), Shoonya- Centre for Art and Somatic Practices, Prakriti Foundation Chennai, French Embassy in India, French Institute in India.
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Meepao - Surjit Nongmeikapam (ensemble)
Sunday, 19.03.2023 , 4:00 PM
© Goethe-Institut Chennai
Meepao is a dance in celebration of all the departed, especially the ones who are deemed inconsequential. Using minimal movements, Meepao invites the spectator into a space where dancers and non-dancers alike can join in this celebration. It begins with simple movements of the feet. The movements repeat, as though creating its own ritual, and finds its depth and textures through the synchronicity of bodies dancing together to the beat of live music. They slowly transcend into a liminal space where the living (mee) convey a message (pao) of harmony.
Credits
Concept/Scenography/Choreography/Performance - Surjit Nongmeikapam
Ensemble: Yengkokpam Purnima Devi, Senjam Hemjit (Tombi), Sumeet Sagolsem, Swami Aribam, Yanglem Luckyson, Bicky Chungkham
Live Music - Heisnam Shantanu Singh
Light - Surjit Nongmeikapam
Rehearsal Director - Joshua Sailo
Costume - Yengkokpam Purnima Devi
Production Manager - Suresh Kiran Singh Khundrakpam (Tomba)
Documentation - Tushar Nongthombam
Supported by
Danse Èlargie, BNP Paribas, Kolkata Centre for Creativity (KCC), Shoonya- Centre for Art and Somatic Practices, Prakriti Foundation Chennai, French Embassy in India, French Institute in India.
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One Flat Thing Reproduced (Dance Film) - William Forsythe, Thierry de Mey
Sunday, 19.03.2023 , 6:00 PM
‘One Flat Thing Reproduced’ is a play for 14 dancers and 20 tables on the music of Thom Willems choreographed by William Forsythe. The World Premiere took place in Frankfurt in 2000 and it was presented at the Palais de Chaillot last July. Unanimously acclaimed by the press, this work with a great theatrical intensity oscillates between disorder and symmetry. This very powerful creation gives rise today to a new work "One Flat Thing Reproduced". Directed by Thierry de Mey - one of the most important directors of dance films- designed this film as a full work. The theatrical disposition was studied especially for the shooting, permitting three cameras to shoot the action from different points of view. He catches choreographic principles developed by Forsythe. The way he shoots, touched by the looks and the exchanges between the dancers, permits to have clear the complexity of creation. Thus, appear very evidently: the aesthetical beauty of shapes, the intensity of the movements and the human side, thanks to the exchanges of looks. This new experience offers the audience the possibility of receiving this creation in a complete different way: emotionally as well as intellectually.
Credits
Choreography: William Forsythe
Film Director: Thierry De Mey
Dancers: The Forsythe Company
Music: Thom Willems
Scenery and Lighting: William Forsythe
Costumes: Stephen Galloway
Production: MK2 TV
Producer: Charles Gillibert
Format: Film 26 minutes / 2006
Copyright notice:
2006 MK2 TV – Arte France – The Forsythe Company – Forsythe Foundation – Arcadi
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Performative Sharing & Discourse of New Creators
Sunday, 26.03.2023 , 6:00 PM
Rituals of Fall - Deepanwita Roy (Solo)
© Goethe-Institut Chennai
The work ‘Rituals of Fall’ inspired by nature and the law of conservation of energy, traverses through the memory of Deepanwita and is expressed through her body, movement, and visuals. It responds to the need for evolution through the previous learnings and transforms the old energy into another form to welcome the new
Sound of Jyamiti - Pallavi Verma & Tania Saxena (Duo)
© Goethe-Institut Chennai
An imagination based on Kathak vocabulary: intersecting sound, rhythmic patterns and geometry on the body. What brings percussive instruments to Kathak? What makes the contact of feet with the floor a fundamental part of how we visualize percussion in Kathak?
How does the body as a complete unit add to visualizing percussive rhythms? Where does the choice of ‘bols’ as a mnemonic sound come from? How does measurement of time relate to body movements?
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