The 38th Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival will explore the issue of displacement and problems that come with it through multimedia dance-theatre productions. Mallika Sarabhai shared details with Divya Kaushik
Promoting social causes through interesting themes in art and culture has been a popular trend since the last few years. It is noteworthy how many experiments are being done and how new ideas are coming to light with spreading word and awareness on important issues. One would witness more such experiments and integration of dance, theatre, text and video art in various performances during the 38th Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival. The three day festival, beginning today at Sri Ram Centre, explores different aspects of the issue of displacement. More and more people in India and elsewhere are getting displaced and dispossessed due to circumstances outside their control. Industrialisation, mining, big dams, climate change, economic and political reasons lead massive groups of humanity to lose their homes and roots. “UNHCR figures show increasingly wider swathes of humanity being uprooted and usually not finding proper rehabilitation. This project aims at bringing public awareness of the problem, to raise voices to influence governments, especially the Indian government, to put in place just, equitable and humane policies to settle these millions,” says danseuse Mallika Sarabhai, who through her performing arts academy Darpana, has always broken the mould and walls around artistic forms. “I was going back to the original concept in the Natya Shastra where dance, drama, music were all aspects of the same art. Specialisation came later. I do not experiment for the sake of experimenting, or change for the sake of change. If I need to communicate an idea and feel it needs more than one vocabulary, I either invent one or learn one. Change is inevitable in all spheres of life and every art evolves with the passing of time. With my constant pursuit for new standards and perception, there were always new experiments. I think it becomes necessary to reinvent and expand the language to meet changing times and newer sciences and concepts of thought and society. The dance drama was a part of the total theatre that the Natya Shastra talks of. But it is very hard to dance, sing and act all at the same time. So specialisation crept in, though some forms like the early Kuchipudi demanded all the forms from the performer. Then we got influenced by the kathakars of India and the ballads of the West. Incidentally, that is where the mistake is made of thinking that a dance-drama is a ballet — the word that should be used is ballad. Today we are inundated with a plethora of media and our influences are myriad. Things inevitably change,” adds Mallika.
The festival will begin with the performance by Revanta Sarabhai and Sarathy Korwar. Titled lDR, it will bring out different complexities of displacement and explore the nature of long-distance relationships. “It raises an important question: how can we find togetherness when living apart and on the moveIJ An effective soundscape layers the text and movement with a multitude of ‘voices’ that speak of waiting, desire and the silence in between separation,” explains Mallika.
The second-day performance, Unearthed, is directed by Yadavan Chandran and Mallika. It is a piece of physical theatre with an adaptation of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story by Gowri Ramnarayan. Mallika shares, “In a world that changes in front of our eyes, who are weIJ Have we lost our sense of selfIJ Why is it that we look for answers in the other, in the enemy, in the one who looks, behaves or is differentIJ Why do we forget our own distancing from our core selves and look instead for answers in others whom we can demoniseIJ What does this personal and internal displacement from our true self mean for a societyIJ Through a story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, adapted by Gowri Ramnarayan, the performance will talk about issues of identity in the state of displacement.”
Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival focusses on collaboration between countries, artists of different styles, painters, sculptors and installation artists. About collaborating with new forms and new artists, Mallika says, “Darpana is an open platform where we encourage artists, who have a social conscience and want to use art in a meaningful way, to come and work, explore, collaborate. And thankfully we have built an infrastructure — studios, a theatre, a fully-equipped video and film space, musicians, dancers, actors, filmmakers, visual artists. Integrating ideas of different wavelengths and depths, whether from India or across the globe, usually results into interesting creations, seamless and suited to contemporary scenarios. That is both exciting and challenging.” About subjects that she chooses for her choreographies, the danseuse says, “Whatever I feel passionately about, ideas and news, come out as creations.”
The last day performance, The Dammed, will feature london-based Dutch choreographer Naomi Deira giving voice to the marginalised and internally displaced in multimedia dance-theatre production. “The Dammed explores displacement of communities or groups of people, forced to leave their homes because of dams, industrial development, climate change, government policies and so on. Naomi Deira had never worked on a social issue and knew nothing about the theme. I liked her work and her energy and invited her to work on this. She meticulously researched the issue for close to six months before coming to work with us and continued to do so all the time she was here. We got her and the artists to visit the displaced to understand the horror of their daily lives, the degradation of spirit. She was sick for days after and would burst into tears. I think this transfers to the audience by the end of the show,” elaborates Mallika.
On how the new form of dance-theatre is helping artistes reach out to the young audience with relevant social themes, she says, “The new generation is more open for change and it is necessary to communicate in a language that goes with their time. Darapana’s contemporary vocabulary speaks their language. But artistry of the highest order is necessary. It is important not to make performances propaganda art, which can be tedious, boring and preachy.”