"Gandhi : Warp & Weft" new abstract dance work by Dancer Geeta Chandran at Chinmaya Mission, 89, Lodhi Road > 7pm on 1st October 2012

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Time : 7:00 pm

Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)

Place : Chinmaya Mission, 89, Lodhi Road, New Delhi - 110003

Venue Info : Events | www.chinmayamissiondelhi.org | Map | Nearest Metro Stations -  'Khan Market(Violet Line)' & 'Jor Bagh(Yellow Line)'

Related Area : Lodhi Road Events 

Event Details : On the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, Sarvodaya International Trust (Delhi Chapter) presents Dancer Geeta Chandran’s new abstract dance work 'Gandhi : Warp and Weft'

A solo performance by (Padmashri) Geeta Chandran
Concept and Choreography: Geeta Chandran and Deepa Dharmadhikari
Duration: 60 minutes, without intermission
Gandhi: Warp and Weft explores key concepts from Gandhian philosophy through the narrative lens of a female dancer in the 21st century.
The choreography plays with ideology through abstract movement as well as narrative gestures, and incorporates both classical Bharatanatyam as well as contemporary movement theatre in its physical vocabulary.
The performance comprises of six concepts interpreted through dance that flows contiguously from one to the other. The first concept is RELIGIOUS UNITY, and is connected to the deep reliance on spiritual syncretism that Gandhi propagated.
The second section CELIBACY probes Gandhi’s lifelong experiment to set aside desires of the flesh while remaining in other ways an active householder and husband.
The third theme explored is SATYAGRAHA, and is inspired by Gandhi’s prison writings, his mass civil disobedience movements, and epochal moments like the Dandi march.
From there, the piece explores AHIMSA, both in the concept of turning the other cheek as peace offering, as well as the violence inflicted on the self through such radical protests like hunger strikes.
The fifth section looks at CASTE AND SHRAM with an eye both to the reformations of the past that Gandhi sought regarding the dignity of labour, as well as the atrocities of caste oppression that continue to our present day.
The concluding section KHADI examines Gandhi’s belief for ecological sustainability and balance, and uses thread as a metaphor for the bonds that the Gandhian movement sought to create across the nation.
Geeta Chandran’s GANDHI: Waft and Weft is performed to an evocative soundscape engineered by sound artist Pratik Biswas, which weaves diverse sound elements ranging from traditional Carnatic tracks to the more esoterically abstract.
Costumes by Sandhya Raman will also reference khadi silk and cottons as they mirror the dancer’s mental transformations through this intensely personal narrative journey.


Geeta Chandran's interpretation of Gandhi
A Comment by by Prof. Susan Visvanathan
I've just returned from a very lovely dance performance at the JNU Convention Centre sponsored by Indian Council of Philosophical Research, focussing on the life work of Gandhi. There was pin drop silence and a standing ovation for Geeta Chandran after the show. Her performance was slow and meditative, a lovely courageous act, supportive of khadi and village life from one of India's best known artists. The designer, Sandhya Raman had created three simple costumes for her: the first in brilliant merged hues of magenta and other vibrant colours, the second costume was of white and a deep dark green, offset with indigo, and a third was pure white, with careful edging of handcrafted lace.
The simplicity of the costumes offset the meditative aspect of Chandran's perfomance which was meditative and instinctive. Many months of research led to the choreography of this dance drama called Gandhi: Warp and Weft.
An upright charpai was sufficient cover for Chandran to change her costumes deftly, as the poor often do in their villages and shanties. The feminist courage of artists is distilled by a certain notion of honour and chastity, which by itself is disturbing in its profound ability to communicate that a society ridden by Draupadian or Seethain politics of obedience, honour and servitude is problematised by its very re-telling in new ways.
By using the context of women's daily chores such as cleaning, cooking, nurturing, feeding and weaving, Chandran moves it to the political ambit of dalit politics, by thematically spinning the narrative of sound, dance and music to the event of manual scavenging: a deft space where sorrow, victory and the impaling of human consciousness all combine. Postmodernity allows that moment of merging when time and narrative are merged in the same moment, where fusion is a syllable comprehensible across ages, whether it is a cry of pain, a political uproar, or a prayer.

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