Birds chirp, and the sound is followed by a delicate hand movement projected on a blank white wall. In front of it, contemporary dancer Anoushka Kurien matches the movement with a graceful step, and the light dims.
If you’re puzzled, this is her intriguing foray into the concept of multiplicity. For Kurien, it’s fascinating enough to bring it to the stage of the Goethe-Institut in her forthcoming production, To be danced.
“I’ve always been interested in the projective image, viewing the performer both live and juxtaposed on a screen simultaneously. That fascination led the way for the collaboration with film, light, and sound,” she says.
Kurien is used to straying away from the status quo since she began training in ballet at the age of 11, when most others in her peer group were attending Bharatanatyam classes. “The codified, organised form of classical dance never interested me,” she shrugs unapologetically, adding that she stopped ballet as well, after seven years, in 2000.
A desire to discover led her to dancer-choreographer Padmini Chettur in 2003. Since then, she has done a host of collaborations and two solo productions. But the upcoming show has been the most difficult yet: “I’ve been working on it for two years,” she says of the solo, 45-minute show, in which she alters the use of visuals. That’s not the only challenge. For the first time, she will be incorporating reel film into her live performance, with the help of filmmaker Deepa Viswani. M Natesh and Darbuka Siva will work on light and sound respectively, while projection consultant Raymond Selvaraj will tie it all together.
The performance, Kurien says, is a self-portrait, forcing her to introspect; this led her to “abstraction,” leaving her identity bare for the audience to interpret.
“I don’t do stories. The narrative is something the audience must discover on their own.” She integrates the storyline into the bigger picture, a careful mélange of the visual and sensorial experience.
Kurien is at a loss for words when asked what she hopes the audience will take away from the show. “I really can’t answer that. For me, the unpredictability of the performance is thrilling. Even while I’m performing, I’m part of that inexplicable process of self-discovery, every single time.”
To be danced will be performed at the Goethe-Institut, Chennai,
on Friday, September 8.
Entry is free. 28331314