When dance captures the stillness in actions

January Low presents ‘Pending’ at Medai in Bengaluru
| Photograph Credit score: Mithun Pai

January Low’s efficiency started in stillness. The absence of music was as hanging as the shortage of elaborate make-up or ornamentation. Actions being listed within the audio observe have been being matched with dance poses however the efficiency established from the start a view of the dancer’s apply room. The viewers was invited to witness the dancer committing sequences to reminiscence, listening to directions, making notes and discovering the dance inside. 

One in every of two performances showcased in The Platform 2025 (introduced by Alif Arts Consultancy at Medai, Bengaluru), January Low’s ‘Pending’ displayed the various little dances that make a dance. It opened repetitions, vulnerability and the seek for perfection to the gaze of the viewers, accustomed to guzzling the “finish product” of demanding preparatory processes. Within the closing enjoying out of the dance, with music and different paraphernalia, the viewers skilled each journey and vacation spot in January’s efficiency.

Sooraj Subramaniam’s ‘Reflections of an Indian dancer’
| Photograph Credit score:
Mithun Pai

Sooraj Subramaniam’s ‘Reflections of an Indian dancer,’ the opposite efficiency of The Platform 2025, was rooted in comparable themes however used its personal stylistic vocabulary to discover the interiority of a dancer’s relationship to 3 dance genres. The viewers travelled with him as he positioned Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi of their histories (with out sidestepping complexities), on the Indian map and within the panorama of his physique (as additionally his private historical past). Unfolding towards a sparklingly written and narrated prose-poem, Sooraj’s efficiency positioned back-stories within the entrance. It mirrored on loss; on being “messed with” when house grew to become a distant, unknown entity. It described the “discovering of a brand new locus” that his dance schooling and apply had enabled.

Whereas an earlier model of January’s ‘Pending’ premiered in 2023 as ‘A Listening Physique,’ Sooraj first carried out ‘Reflections of an Indian Dancer’ in 2021, later touring the UK and Europe with it. ‘A Listening Physique’ was a response to the modifications in her “relationship with dance after the pandemic,” however ‘Pending’ supplied “extra nuanced content material” as a result of it was based mostly on classes distilled via the sooner work, January shares. Having been in the hunt for “totally different entry factors for the viewers to come across and expertise Odissi,” January says, “my apply observes how Odissi continues to thrive in my South East Malaysian physique as a mom to 3 kids. My digital mentorship with didi (Bijayini Satpathy) developed an company in my physique and apply that I’ve by no means skilled earlier than. This impressed me to create this work.”

‘Pending’ premiered in 2023 as ‘A Listening Physique,
| Photograph Credit score:
Mithun Pai

She was “curious to share the unseen labour (emotional and bodily) that goes into apply, and the unwavering religion dancers carry with them once they present up, although efficiency alternatives are few and much between,” she provides. “The largest problem as a mom has been to stay constant, to be variety to myself particularly in the course of the pauses (as a mom, there are various) and to remain current,” says January. Her focus, due to this fact, is on “the sacred stillness” that apply brings to her. 

‘Reflections of an Indian Dancer’, directed by Balbir Singh (of Balbir Singh Dance Firm, UK) sought to “make Indian dance accessible with out oversimplifying its complexity,” says Sooraj. “The principle problem was sustaining the tone and tempo of the prose-poetry script whereas balancing the genealogies of the dance types towards an autobiographical backdrop.” He seems for “synergy reasonably than battle between idioms,” he says, likening his immersive engagement with three kinds to “being multilingual”. Recently, his apply has been centred on Odissi, “particularly as I practice with Bijayini Satpathy, and am relishing the recent challenges and prospects it presents,” he says.

Each ‘Pending’ and ‘Reflections of an Indian Dancer’ narrated dance tales in a rigorously crafted inside out language. Mapping thoughts and physique on stage, they felt inclusive of the viewers in ways in which standard dance performances are sometimes not. Successfully utilizing pause and silence, they made thought seen, evocatively opening up subtext to viewers expertise.