Friday April 3, 2009 - Having no idea what to expect, Rob and I went down to Joyce SoHo to see the Canadian-based troupe, inDANCE. We were enthralled by the fusion of traditional Indian dance technique (Bharatanatyam) with contemporary motifs and by the expressive beauty of the dancers. In a programme of five fairly short pieces, inDANCE carried us off to a world that seemed by turns exotic, poetic, powerful and erotic. Yet mixed in with the seriousness of purpose, inDANCE can also be truly amusing. Hari Krishnan is the creative genius behind inDANCE.
The programme was ideally constructed so that the first three works flowed together in the darkened theatre as if in a shifting dream. Lighting by Shane Mongar and costuming from Rex that meshed bejeweled elegance with touches of club-kid punk gave the evening a unique visual flair.
Beth Despres opened INVERSE in pink shorts and a filmy blue top; she seemed quite 'modern' in her movement style though her arms and hands echoed the Bharatantyam poses. Stepping into the light, Hiroshi Miyamoto in a long gauzy blue skirt immediately captivated us with the remote beauty of his face and his fluent articulation of gesture. Dancing together with neatly dovetailed steps - sometimes stomping emphatically - and movements of the head, Beth and Hiroshi were mesmerizing both in the duet passages (where they never seem to touch) and in their solos.
In BOX, drummer Aaron Paige and vocalist/cymbalist Hari Krishnan were seated on either side of a pair of lit squares. In one, Julie Neuspiel in gorgeous black and gold traditional garb and in the other Nalin Bisnath in black contemporary gym-wear danced in unison. There was a feeling of teacher and student, or of passing on stylistic nuances. The eye darted between the two women as the drummed rhythms and the hypnotic chanting of Hari wove a spell, a connection of two worlds.
In the longest and most enthralling work of the evening, OWNING SHADOWS, the evocative score by Michel Smith set the atmosphere with bamboo flute, a melisma of vocal effects from chant to Chinese opera, and interjected spoken words. Abstracted from an ancient tale, this ritualistic work begins with two dancers slumbering under a cocoon-like veil. They awake slowly and rise to move in sensuous unity, later evolving thru conflict and back to repose. At the center of the work is a breathtaking passage where the dancers standing back to back revolve slowly around one another as they move in a slow diagonal across the stage. Their expressions and gestures, superbly illuminated, capture a rite of passage. Emily Watts radiates feminine tenderness, guile and passion with her vivid features and her authoritative movement. Hiroshi Miyamoto was the young prince of the narrative, an object of desire.
Hiroshi (above) struck me all evening as one of the most compelling and alluring dancers I've ever encountered. Slender and somewhat delicate of feature, his eyes are ever-expressive of the emotions of the moment: haughty, predatory, dreamy or enticing. He moves in his own sphere, with a delicious air of the unattainable. And he has beautiful feet.
In a perfect change of pace, MEA CULPA injected a strong dose of humor into the evening. In silence, Joshua Green steps into the playing area and slowly doffs his black blazer and trousers. Underneath he wears fitted pants that have a fishnet-stocking look. Unbuttoning his silky shirt, Joshua reacts as he hears the familiar trumpet calls which mark the opening of the stretta from Rossini's WILLIAM TELL overture. In a wild, over-the-top spoof on classic male ballet variations, Joshua spins and sails thru combinbations, shirttails flying. Meanwhile the Rossini has been over-laid with a pulsating Indian drum rhythm. Joshua gives the dance a campy hard-sell with broad facial expressions, clearly delighting in his own virtuosity. Truly hilarious. In a program note, Hari mentioned that this dance was inspired by a photo of Ted Shawn in The Cosmic Dance of Siva (above).
After a slight pause as a movie screen is unveiled at the back, we are shown scenes from the Bollywood films and then five dancers appear in fusion-disco attire with day-glo necklaces and they prance and preen in the riotous finale BOLLYWOOD HOPSCOTCH. Each has a solo while the others pose around the perimeter: Nalin Bisnath, Beth Despres, Emily Watts and the ever-beguiling Hiroshi. Joining them is another charismatic dancer, Vinod Shankar whose smouldering good-looks, tawny torso and come-hither glances were replaced moments later when he appeared in street clothes and wire-rimmed glasses for a Q and A session looking like an earnest med student.
Hari spoke about the evolving history and traditions of Bharatanatyam which will provoke me to further reading on the subject which I know nothing about - except that it's captivating. Beth Despres talked about her intese study of the early Indian dance forms upon joining inDANCE. Once the province of women only, Bharatanatyam eventually came to include male practitioners. I was wishing that we might have seen Vinod in a more 'classic' piece but that will be something to look forward to when we will hopefully see inDANCE here in New York again. The audience watched the dancers in spellbound silence.
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