Movie Reviews, Theatre in India, Travel trails --- see images of life through Sonali Jha Chatterjee's logbook...

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Bodyweather performance

On April 11, I saw an interesting site-specific performance based on the eight natya rasas, viz., shringara, hasya, karuna, raudra, vira, bhayanakah, vibhatsya and adbhuta. This 40-minute improvisation showed a glimpse of each of these eight emotional states. It was performed by two actors, Tess de Quincy, dancer, choreographer and performer from Sydney, and Shantanu Bose from Kolkata. The audio and video support was provided by Sam James, also from Sydney.
What was interesting about this Bodyweather technique was its slow and subtle quality founded by butoh dancer Min Tanaka of Japan, weaving Eastern and Western thought processes. The grating sound composed by Michael Toisuta helped create the unsettling atmosphere, as did the black and white video images, keeping the audience on tenterhooks as they followed the two performers in their journey.

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