| Pulse - Summer 2005 |
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Summer issue 2005 |
Don't miss reading this exciting summer edition of PULSE... for the first time colour images and 52 pages of interesting, informative stories, news, views and reviews...
PULSE summer 2005 is our 'VOGUE' edition; at least, that is how I had been hyping it with the team backstage, not that costume design in dance is yet anywhere near haute couture, or necessarily wants to be. The idea was to visually and textually lighten us up with an easy-on-the-eye costuming or Aharya cover story-after a serious, scholarly spring 2005 issue on Sanskrit texts. But then, I am also into this notion that contemporary dance can be seen as a movement
style, and that the immensely marketable synergies between high fashion and British dance, should be exploited for the greater good! Anway, this issue was all pretty much ready to go to press, complete with a new fashion style masthead, resplendent with visions of silk and chiffon and joyous self-absorption.
Then the bombs exploded, or rather, people exploded bombs blasting other people (and possibly themselves) into body parts in a grotesque angika abhinaya of a horrific, site specific physical theatre of sorts; they seared the London state of mind, burning in new memories and stirring stoic
old ones, and twisting certainties about even the simplest things into, at least, mildly disturbing questions: "Will I make it to the studio and back?"; "Should I really pay for so many dance classes in advance?"
But for everyone here, it has also been about strengthening resolve in the face of terror, and as I hurriedly re-write this missive two days after, there are still sounds of sirens pealing amidst the traffic trailing east on the arterial Ring Road, which encircles central London and the scenes of the blasts, going from Edgware Road tube station on my right, past where I live, past Russell Square, to a not-too-far King's Cross, bending ever east, south, and around, through all the familiar hubs and stops for dance practitioners and dance followers, who criss-cross the city and beyond, giving workshops and shows, and earning a living; the ring enfolds many institutions, with links, new and old, to the south asian dance of recent times and to the Indian classical dances of old: the Marylebone Dance Studio, SOAS, the South bank Centre, the London Contemporary Dance School, the British Museum, the National Gallery, Somerset House, Logan Hall and more.
And in between the sounds of sirens, I did wonder, briefly, if it was inappropriate that this issue focuses on something as superficial as costumes on the body of a dancer, when bodies are yet to be recovered from underground tracks. But I also know that 'fashion' is serious business behind all the froth and fun (fashion writer Suzy Menkes did get an OBE very recently); and, more to the point, costume is part of aharya, an enshrined mode of abhinaya or essential expression, and is, therefore, not without a narrative of its own: we expect to explore and problematise this in the next issue.
Meanwhile, the masthead red that we had chosen weeks ago as a fashion colour will now have bloody associations; yet, in many cultures, especially South Asian, it is also the blood-sourced colour of life. So, as we express our sorrow and respect in mourning black and white, we go forward undaunted, with the colour red, in hope and strength.
I trust you are with us.
Chitra Sundaram
Editor
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Cover Feature
Addressing the dancer's line
The legendary Ram Gopal spent fortunes on costumes, some of which were made of cloth of gold; in Germany, his contemporary, modern dancer Mary Wigman, willingly ran into debt and starved herself to be able to buy the brocades that inspired her. Back here, Liz Lea has sewn her own elaborate costumes for the 1906-inspired 2003 Radha piece, and, as I write, dancers in India are likely throwing tantrums, crying and begging, to extract their outfits from busy traditional tailors in the run-up to a performance. Why do dancers bother so much about costume?
From starving to sewing to commissioning - why do dancers care so much inquires Bithika Chatterjee as she talks to some London-based costume designers commissioned for south asian dance work, and examines what hangs from their rails.
What women (should) wear!
It's not without 'tradition' that men have dictated fashion trends on the catwalks of London, Paris, Milan; centuries ago, Sanskrit writers, men all of them, dictated not only what
dancers should wear but even how they should be endowed! Sanskritist and dance scholar Mandakranta Bose provides a quick peek.
Many coloured strands
Odissi dancer and researcher, Jaya Chattopadhyaya reports on why and how some leading Delhi-based dancers are taking a fresh look at it all - techniques, traditions, shapes, sizes, choreographic ideas and professional designers - for inspiration.
Features
"Separate into 'FOR STAGE' and 'FOR LIFE'? Cannot!"
A woman of distinctive designed style, both on and off-stage, dancer/choreographer Anita Ratnam talks to Lalitha Venkat about stretching the fabric of aharya in India.
Crimped silks and chiffons
Kathak dancer/choreographer Madhu Natraj-Heri, the artistic director of Natya Stem Dance Kampani reminisces about working with Wendell Rodricks, India's best known couturier and fashion guru.
The all-absorbing Juggernaut of Orissa
Attending a new arts and culture festival in the home of Odissi dance, dance critic Leela Venkataraman encounters dancers as well as an all-pervasive presence of the Visnu deity, Jagannath of Puri. Examining both the phenomenon and the performance artistry of its devotees, she provides insight into this unique deity-of-the-masses who dies.
Technique
Teasing out the TA-TEI-TEI-TA
Mavin Khoo examines the 'meertu' and 'ushi' adavu-s and addresses a common problem with maintaining turn out in the expansive movement as well as in the torque.
Email… from Maryland
A Central Asian spring in the US
Bharatanatyam dancer and teacher, Christel Stevens catches an unusual event - a Central Asian ballet with a multinational cast full of the legendary colour and romanticism of the East, and in which seven women in seven dance styles, including kathak, embodied the seven wisdoms.
Performance reviews
Priyadarshini Govind (India): Bharatanatyam repertoire by Alessandra Lopez y Royo
Akram Khan: Third Catalogue by Kush Saini
Tribhangi Dance Theatre (South Africa): iKHAYA by Paromita Sen Mukherjee
Arya Madhavan (India): Poothana Moksham by Deborah Procter
Anurekha Ghosh and Company: Ruins by Kush Saini
Shane Shambu: Impermanence by Annapoorna Kuppuswamy
Seeta Patel: Cycle of Change by Annapoorna Kuppuswamy
Sankalpam and friends: AATAM 2005 by Annapoorna Kuppuswamy
Plus colourful poster
Exciting Simon Richardson image from Art of Travel, a new ensemble work by Kali Dass, soon to be seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
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PULSE is published by Kadam Asian Dance and Music, the leading South Asian Dance development agency, in the Eastern Region, England.
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