Thought provoking dance work from new company (Gisele Turner’s Theatre Turneround, with acknowledgement to Daily News)
It’s always exciting when classical forms are removed from their cultural context and made to serve new innovative masters. This can only happen successfully if the artist has a deep and thorough grounding in the classical form - as any allusions need to be authentic and convincing to make the desired impact and convince the reactionaries. Varsha Sharma’s dance work, Chakra View, which performed to a packed Opera Theatre at the Playhouse last month, was a case in point.
Deeply distressed by the Mumbai attacks and driven by a desire to come to terms with her feelings as well as offer the impetus for attitudinal change, Sharma conceived an ambitious and multi-dimensional project rooted in her capacity for impeccable rendition of Indian classical dance forms and emerging from a need to address contemporary issues in a unique style of neo-fusion. There can be no doubt that she, and the many artists with whom she collaborated on the project, can feel satisfied that they achieved their exacting goal.
Beautifully lit and exquisitely costumed, Chakra View delves into the issue of how the mind is the source of both our problems and our solutions. Correct thinking leads to correct action. So long as both the individual and collective ego is rampant and man is trapped in the snares of greed and violence, humanity continues to suffer at every level. Man’s inhumanity to man, often driven by nationalism and paradoxically, religion, is exposed in a series of hectic historical visual images on a screen; the dancers writhing with the pain of humanity meanwhile.
Conversion is always the tricky part – in real life as well as in art. Having taken the viewers into a place of horror (and the point is well made) how to lift them into sweetness and light without it seeming contrived? Sharma wisely leaves the transformation to the individual and expresses the desirable attitude in dances of purity and joy; a healing process that reminds us that we too can play our part in the arduous process of turning the wheel from bondage to freedom by taking care of the way we think.
Chakra View is the maiden project of SiddhArts, a collaboration between Sharma and Kajal Bagwandeen. Supported by the Consulate of India, this forward-thinking piece of fusion dance also featured dancers from the Nateshwar Dance Academy who generally acquitted themselves well. Synchronised ensemble work is always the true test of a dance troupe and this is where some work will need to be done to ensure a tighter hold on the sequences. I also felt that the voiceovers sounded a bit strained and didn’t feel that the spoken voice episode quite hit the mark.
But those were my only quibbles: it was a pleasure to be taken on a journey that did not look at the ills of the world in their usual material context but embraced spiritual truths and sought solutions in individual responsibility. Sharma and Bagwandeen’s classical dancing was of the highest order, refined, controlled, relaxed and beautiful to the eye and the modern pieces were well realised. The ribbon has been cut and the ship sailed safely out the harbour: SiddhArts is a creative force to be reckoned with! – Gisele Turner
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