From documenting the Siddi Dhamal dance form practised by the Siddis of Gujarat to capturing the energetic Padayani folk dance and ritual art of Kerala — Jothi Viknesh, Anusha Veeresh and Manohar Marappa are on an unusual road journey to soak in the varied folk traditions of India. They are calling it the Indian Dance Trail that began in Bengaluru in January this year. Their aim is to cover 60, 000 kilometres by the end of the year and also see if it becomes a Guinness World Record for the longest drive in the same country by car. They have so far completed 18,000 kilometres covering Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. They hope to witness major festivals across the country and document the rich traditions of Indian dance forms.

Aiming for a record

The idea to go on an all-India journey came about when a video made by Jothi and Anusha on the Veeragase dance form of Karnataka received 2.5 million views on YouTube without much promotion. Based on Hindu mythology, this dance form involves very intense energy-sapping dance movements and is one of the dances demonstrated in the Dasara procession held in Mysuru. “We realised that there are many who are interested to know the history and traditions behind such ancient Indian dance forms. Documenting these would be an interesting way to preserve a rich history,” says Anusha.

Most of their travel routes are planned beforehand. “We do a research about the place and region’s dance forms before we reach. This is because a majority of these folk dance forms are specific to a particular time of the year. But there are chance discoveries too when we stumble upon something unique,” says Anusha, who has been training in traditional and contemporary dance forms from her childhood.

On many occasions, they stayed with the dancers in their village, learning about their traditions and beliefs. Their journey also took them to places where they could document lesser known dance forms like the Jogati Nritya in the Bellari district of Karnataka. It is a ritual dance performed by a group of transgenders called Jogappas to appease Goddess Yellamma.

Not all of their experiences were pleasant. At the Chettikulangara Devi Temple in Alappuzha district of Kerala, they met some hostile resistance. “We saw a group of children surrounded by adults. They wouldn’t allow us to film anything and insisted we delete the few videos we had already filmed there,” says Anusha. “It was only later that we came to know that they were performing the banned ritual of ‘Chooral Muriyal’ a part of Kuthiyottam. As part of the ritual young boys are offered as sacrifice to the goddess Bhadrakali. While they are not actually sacrificed, their midriffs are pierced with a gold or silver string, that is later pulled out and offered up. “It is a symbolic representation of human sacrifice. Once the ritual is over, these boys are abandoned,” she adds.

Inspiring tales

On the more memorable side, they had some inspiring encounters. They met Sanjeeva Suvarna, principal of Guru Bannanje Yakshagana Kendra in Udipi, who is among the few surviving Yakshagana trainers left. “Our idea is to make a short documentary on each of these dance forms and release it in our YouTube channel Expertnomads by the end of the journey,” says Anusha.

Funding is a challenging part of their journey. “We make pit-stops at cities to conduct Afroworks fitness dance workshops at schools, colleges, dance studios and wellness centres. This is fun-filled dance fitness regime based on African dance and music. This way we get to also reach out to people and talk about Indian dance forms and our journey,” says Jothi, who held workshops at Starlite Wellness Centre and Pollocks School on their halt at Visakhapatnam. While they haven’t had the opportunity to document the folk dance forms of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, they are hoping to be back in the Telugu States again in the next leg of their journey. The Indian Dance Trail is now heading to the North East where they plan to document Nagaland’s Mopin festival, before moving on to Assam.

To follow them, read their updates on the Facebook page Indian Dance Trail.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Dance / by Nivedita Ganguly / March 27th, 2019

I walk through the dark entrance of the Government College of Fine Arts on a quiet Saturday evening. From outlines and vague shadows, I figure out that a motley group of people has gathered before the magnificent white-coloured main building of the college. It’s no secret that the building is one of the most beautiful heritage structures in the city. Soon, the very building would transform into a screen on to which a documentary film will be projected. When the clock strikes seven, to the background of the rumbling of a distant train and the howling of street dogs in a fight, the building starts narrating the story of handloom weavers in Gajendragad. The projection takes the shape of the building, replete with parallel scenes that run on either aisles, apart from the central frame. A performance in the form of spoken poetry too, happens in front of the structure.

Hidden Lily, a documentary film, is part of Bengaluru-based 3rd Space Lab Collective’s long-term collaborative project, Social Weavers, in association with the handloom weaving societies of Gujarat, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka and textile artists Shatrughan Thakur and Priyanka Kumari. The goal of Social Weavers is to develop a series of 300 hand-woven saris that interpret landscape as a metaphor, which will culminate in an exhibition. The documentary was developed in collaboration with artist and projection mapping specialist G Craig Hobbs.

Yarn that narrates

The quest started in 2016 for this collective of artists, whose projects are on collaborating cultures. The collective was started in 2012, by Shalini Agrawal and Trena Noval from California and Lalitha Shankar and Shamala Nandesh from Bengaluru. “Shamala and I were on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge and were looking at the tourist maps and guides. Then, we came to know that the cable used in the bridge goes around half the Equator in terms of distance,” artist Lalita Shankar says, about the inception of the project. This led Lalitha and Shamala, also an artist, to look at the rich culture of handloom in Bengaluru. “Then the idea of using yarn to cover the distance between San Francisco and Bengaluru came up. But we were sure of using organic cotton and natural dyes to make saris that would cover the distance,” she continues, adding that the geographical landscape, then becomes a metaphor. The distance they were trying to bridge was that of two completely different cultures. And the number of saris required for this, would be 323. “Thirty-five kilometres of yarn will be used to make one sari (warp and weft included)”.

These saris will, in turn, act as canvases. Art from different locations and specific to different communities, will feature on them. And of the 323 saris, 25 have been woven as of now. Lalita hopes that in the next two years, the collective would be able to finish all the 323 works of art. “We have looked at Bhuj, Andhra Pradesh, Gajendragad and Odisha now.” Their next stop is Narayanpet in Telangana. “The design is very specific to the environment it is in. The loom and the way they weave adds to the end product,” she explains, adding that the collaboration with artisans from different locations, was an eye-opener for them. However, she also says that it is not always easy to gain the weavers’ trust. “It is difficult to build trust in them. There is something that pulls them back when it comes to projects like these,” she concludes.

The video mapping (projecting a film on to a building) was done in connection with the Chennai Photo Biennale, on March 22 and 23.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Gowri S / March 25th, 2019