Sunday, January 31, 2010

Review for Chennai show... For Pina...

By Saranya Chakrapani
30 Jan 2010 04:26:00 AM IST

A tribute to pina

CHENNAI: When you pay homage to a legendary, influential artiste like Pina Bausch, you don’t just celebrate her signature style but also showcase an evolved art form that she would have thoroughly enjoyed. It would hence be appropriate to say that ‘For Pina’ the promenade performance co-produced by Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, India and Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bangalore, was more a revival of her spirit to explore, rebel and liberate. Spaces, the mystique abode of the late danseuse Chandralekha was the perfect locale for this tribute, considering Chandralekha’s own undying urge to break conventions and use dance as her sole, sacred catharsis.
The venue, known for its aesthetic performing spaces and their silent symbiosis with nature, was the perfect location for a promenade, as the audience, along with the artistes shifted base from time to time as the evening progressed.
The expression was all about unabashed liberation - of the body and the soul— signified by swift, acrobatic movements that revealed hints of diverse dance forms, a generous dose of erotica and music that could haunt you for days to come. It was a melting pot of various sounds - some of which you were familiar with — chimes, beats, voices and extreme pitches— and others that you just couldn’t comprehend.
It however, never once did fail to synchronise with the performers’ sonic trance-like movements and energy. It also drew inspiration from traditional Indian movements and the common features of a promenade. A part of the performance had live music too — cutting-edge and flawlessly performed.
While the frenzied movements of these young men and women, clad in sensuously simple red and black, were open to interpretation, they did seem to evocate the less significant moments of our life.
The ones that we tend to overlook, emotions we are often too occupied to pay heed to and errs we could do away with.
Pina Bausch, the legendary German performer who passed away in June last year would have indeed appreciated this.

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