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A question of identity
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Exploring the idea of multiple identities and the concept of body as architecture, "Trans Avatar" draws heavily on the diasporic experience. ADITI DE talks to Jayachandran Palazhy, the man behind the show.
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ARC projected upon arc suggests a brave new terrain, instead of mere stage space. Lithe figures in luminous green swing, curve and lift each other, telescoping unexplored distances.
Tawny androgynous forms surge, then sweep, swing and leap, keeping tableaux in constant flux between two screens. Each carves out an individual trajectory within a universal pattern. A change of mood. Clad in earth hues, in skirted garments that cling and swirl, humanscapes creep into the dance arena.
What does "Trans Avatar" the latest work by the London-based Imlata Dance Company — originally formed in 1989 as an amateur cooperative by Kerala-born Jayachandran Palazhy while at the London Contemporary Dance School — portend?
In an age where the poetry of performance is often completed in the imagination of the viewer, which intersections does it emphasise, which points of reference resonate? A globe called home, yet a search for imaginary homelands? A polyglot culture, where every being is in tumultuous transit between identities? Or composite identities, perhaps a current reality?
"In the earlier Imlata works, there were London-based dancers from Spain, Australia, France and the United Kingdom. But now I'm more fascinated by people who share a sensibility that is Indian," explains Imlata's artistic director Jayachandran, 43, who set up the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts at Alwaye in Kerala in 1992, shifting it to Bangalore in 2001.
"Geographically, their parents or grandparents may have an Indian heritage. I'm interested in this strand, of people who have gone to other places, taken on other cultural experiences."
Trans Avatar's four dancers reflect this diasporic latitude. They include Jayachandran, trained in Bharatanatyam and Kathakali at Kalakshetra and with the Dhananjayans, moving on to folk dances, Kalari from Kerala and Brazilian Capoeira to be recognised internationally as a dynamic choreographer and solo performer. And U.K.-based Yamuna Devi, fascinated by dance fusion, whose movement vocabulary stems from ballet, jazz, hip-hop, Kathak, and Graham-release techniques. And Stockholm-based Rani Nair, of Indo-Swedish parentage, whose choreography reflects both South Asian dance forms and the London club scene. And Kerala-born Saju Hari, trained in Kalari, who has worked with Jan Freeman in New York, Yael Flexer in the U.K. and Andre Gringas in the Netherlands.
"I'm interested in their stories," stresses the choreographer in Jayachandran, referring to the Attakkalari-organised 14-nation "Facets 2002" international choreography laboratory in Bangalore, which inspired Trans Avatar.
"The performance also reflects a deeper involvement with digital technology and research on telematic performance. Today, cyberspace is often western-dominated. I wanted our expression, our images, to inhabit that space."
All set for to entrance audiences in Bangalore (February 28), Chennai (March 3) and Mumbai (March 8), Trans Avatar was received with acclaim during its tour of over 25 venues in the U.K., Germany and Switzerland in October-November 2002.
As the feline dancers carve our their own territories, their impressions in time, Tantra-based or yogic or mudra-drawn images appear on the backdrop, perhaps as two interlinked hands that suggest a whole world. Or digital close-ups of the dancers' faces that morph into each other in layered, textured androgyny.
"Digital technology allows you to look at small, intimate gestures, easily magnified," says Jayachandran, equally at home in London, Kochi and Bangalore.
"These martial arts or Shaivite or dance-based images are an abstract codification of our physicality."
That explains the intense engagement of German digital whiz Christian Ziegler, British composer-installation artist Joseph Hyde, costume designer Ursula Bombshell and lighting designer in Helen Cain in this multi-media explosion.
The diasporic experience is integral to Trans Avatar.
"When we explore the idea of multiple identities, whether you live in Stockholm or London or Bangalore, your physicality, your movement, your being resonates in a different way in each context," the feline dancer expounds.
"I was interested in the body as architecture, through both external spaces and internal spaces constituted by our thoughts and memories."
As each dancer brought to the piece their own stories and interviews from alternate walks of life, identities melded and reconstituted as images.
Evolved through an elaborate sketchbook and storyboard, "it grew from aesthetics and principles from Indian movement languages, whether martial arts or classical dance. Ziegler and Hyde had to own the idea equally from the perspective of their media" Jayachandran stresses.
In this unidentified suspended space, amidst complex identities, what metamorphoses did Trans Avatar undertake?
Ziegler's original projection of a narrow line that vibrated to the music was transformed into dynamic arcs, implying the unsaid, the untold, in the choreography. Notions of codified, invested expression from Teyyam, Therukoothu, Yakshagana, Bharatanatyam or Kathakali were revisited to create fresh body lines, innovative expressions.
Current sparking points?
"The contemporary young Indian, whether in Delhi or New York, has a phenomenal positive energy. In Europe or North America, people seem tired," he offers.
"It's that exuberance about possibility that I'm interested in. The abundance of experience of people of Indian origin hasn't yet been processed in the contemporary arts scene. It may not have resources in terms of finance, technology or stage technique, but it's very exciting. I'm interested in this new articulation of our sensibility, our experience, no matter where you are."
While assimilating feedback from performances abroad, between the lines of entry defined by global cultures, what does Trans Avatar signify?
"We recognise avatar as an incarnation of a deity," laughs Jayachandran. "It is supposed to have another connotation in 18th Century Indian mathematics.
"But in chat rooms on the Net, it spells an assumed identity. Who are we, beyond our recognisable identities? What will we metamorphose into?"
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