Art...is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real. 
~Rabindranath Tagore 1930

LVHD & KRITI

Contact Dansense to find out more about and to book
the LVHD or Kriti "collaborative action dance project" for your students/institution.

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Look into my Voice, Hear my Dance (LVHD)
2019-2020

Photos by Ri Lindegren

LVHD is a collaboration of Bharata Natyam dancers and survivors of sexual and domestic violence to bring their stories to the community.  The project began with an introduction and exploration of different approaches to dancing and creating with BN, including Bharata Nrityam, with 4 BN dancers at ASU.  With these additional creative tools and an introductory advocacy training by ACESDV staff Doreen, the dancers paired up with 4 survivor-members through ACESDV, while 3 survivor-members worked directly with Sumana to generate their own pieces.  We were actively sharing, creating, thinking and dancing together for the past year and strung this garland of mini-performances for you to experience.  LVHD is a collaborative action dance project:  it is dance as a language of empowerment; it is joining a movement to end violence in our communities; it is awakening a collective consciousness.  It seeks to do what dance has always done—build community for everyone.
Glimpses at:  LVHD Seen

BOOKING INFORMATION:
The LVHD collaborative action dance project can be shared as a summer intensive or as a residency for dance, especially Bharata Natyam, in creating a project for participants to engage with their community about a justice issue of their choice.  The LVHD collaborative action dance project is suitable for all ages in studio, K-12 or higher education settings.

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KRITI
2019

Kriti is a choreographic work of about 15 minutes in collaboration with 8 dancers and 4 Indian musicians exploring how tradition can be translated from ancient thought to contemporary lived experiences through various movement practices with a grounding in Bharata Nrityam and Carnatic music.  A multicultural work that treats ancient stories of Ganesha with contemporary perspectives, it leads to individual and collective discoveries about common values and questions we have as human beings across time and borders. 
What is a story? How do we listen? I love our stories and learn something new from them with every retelling. Those who made them gave us so many different ways of seeing wisdom. Perhaps that is part of the wisdom— to keep looking from different perspectives. So, with the help of my co-conspirator artists, we share an exploration of the stories that evoke Ganesha and the ideas we gleaned from them, utilizing our varied, yet collective approaches. The original Bharata-Natyam choreography by N. Srikanth appears as a reminder to recognize our roots and foundations, even as we set out to explore new frontiers.

Booking information:
Kriti can be commissioned as a performance of the original set work or as a short dance-intensive to explore the basic process of a collaborative action dance project and create a choreography, using Bharata Nrityam pedagogy and somatics, unique to the intensive's participants.

Past Performances:
March 14 & 15, 2019—Spring Graduate Project Presentations, School of Film, Dance & Theater, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
September 22, 2019—Dansense Symposium 2019, ASU Kerr Cultural Center, Scottsdale, AZ

Photos by Lawrence Fung

PRATIKARYAM MAHAKARYAM
Every job counts.
2015

Pratikaryam Mahakaryam is Stage Sanchaar's presentation of a well-known fable from the Panchatantra, which is found around the world in different forms. This production utilizes a stylized version of Indian street theater with music arranged from the albums Seasons and Yakshas.  Join us in discovering how each of us has something to contribute.  AND no matter how small it is, put together, it makes all the difference.

Embrace-a conversation about Change
2015~

EMBRACE is a multi-layered concept using art to connect our community. In EMBRACE, we consider CHANGE and the struggle we face personally and as a society when confronted by its necessity.  Each of us has a personal and collective sense of tradition, which becomes the foundation for ‘identity’.  What happens when we are faced with a new environment?  Is it alright to tweak what we accept as essentially constant?  If so, how does one incorporate change?  And finally, what are we giving up and/or gaining in the process?   When faced with a different environment, new experiences or upheaval, we must unravel that which binds us and use it to embrace the moment where tradition meets transformation.  Drawing inspiration from art installations by Nirmal Raja and Dara Larson, Stage Sanchaar presents 4 Bharata Natyam dance pieces with an impromptu music and painting piece.  We invite the audience to participate by weaving their way through the installations and then joining in a panel discussion to share ideas about change.

Past Performances:
April 18, 2015— Début in support of RedLine Gallery’s Shelter Education Program at Theater Unchained, Milwaukee, WI
April 30, 2016—In support of Scottish Rite Theater’s programming to underserved schools at Scottish Rite Theater, Austin, TX. 

The Power of YOU
2010

Credit: Arun Rajagopalan

The Power of YOU is an hour-long production advocating the empowerment of women and girls and includes these pieces:   Invocation,  Breaking the Cycle,  The Letter--Overcoming oppression...at a cost (inspired by  Kalki Krishnamurthy's short story 'Kadithamum Kanneerum’),  Trigunātītā--A survivor’s journey to peace within and to be celebrated and  ‘Suno’ by Indiva--A video.  It is inspired by those who survive, resist oppression, help survivors, change policy, enforce rules and create awareness.  The performance of this production is meant to serve as a fundraiser for organizations addressing violence against women and promoting the empowerment of women. 

Past Performances:
October 2, 2010— In support of Arizona South Asians for Safe Families at Kerr Cultural Center, Scottsdale, AZ.
October 26, 2013—In support of SAHARA of South Florida at Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center, Hollywood, FL