Dance Bridges festival was recently held in Kolkata and IMI Kolkata was a partner. The theme was ‘The sense of intimacy’, bringing together curated choreographic works which share personal stories with a sense of vulnerability and honesty. It was held from August 1-5.
This was the third edition and explored the possibilities accompanying dance performed in unconventional settings. The proximity of the performer with the audience in such spaces, allow for the dance to be an intimate personal encounter.
On August 3, the Alipore campus of IMI Kolkata witnessed performances from internationally celebrated artists. Asomates Dynameis Dance Company from Cyprus performed a dance work about stamina, compassion and spiritual quest. It reflected the intimate voyage of personal elevation that signifies both the quest for meaning and the human desire to encounter oneself and the other. Performers narrated their stories, leaving traces of their personal paths.
Gabrielle Revlock from the US performed “Love is like a butterfly”, a solo performance which builds on ‘Halo’, exploring the body’s relationship to a hoop in a continuous motion. Using a hoop as a prop, she wanted to subvert the assumptions that first, a hula hoop must ‘perform’ as a hula hoop, and second, the excellence of a piece with a hoop is dependent on the hoop not touching the ground. Similarly, the performance of Stefano Fardelli from Italy, was a personal tale of a morning contemplation scene experienced in Varanasi.
Martin Piliponsky Braier’s performance reflecting his view of the world was intriguing. The performance was choreographed in Kolkata during a 15-day residency programme with dance artists from different parts of India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. “Urban Chaos” spoke about modern lifestyles, struggles and the vulnerabilities of existence in an urban digital world. This piece found its expression in the microcosm of fear and psychology of people, thus representing the macrocosm of our booming urban centres.