The Khambatta Dance Company, touring worldwide, stopped at the IMI Kolkata campus on September 9 and interacted with students on dance as a medium to connect people.

Headed by Cyrus Khambatta and his team of six dancers, the troupe came to India to showcase its exemplary talent in the 8th edition of the international dance biennale, ‘Interface 2016’. They were on a voyage to display the most recent of their Quadra series, ‘Truth and Betrayal’.

Khambatta Dance Company contrasts rigorous partnering and athletic movement with authentic human content to create emotionally moving dance that is both visually beautiful and physically demanding. IMI Kolkata became another launchpad for it to express its motivations and ideas. The company’s mission is to share its passion for dance by connecting to its audience with emotionally resonant and topically relevant work.

A prelude to contemporary dance was outlined at the start of the workshop for the IMI Kolkata students. The session began with warm-up moves and gradually aimed at transforming non-dancers to dancers by imbuing them with the true spirit of dance.

Harshit Rajpurohit, a first-year student, was captivated with its style and said, “This session helped me convert my feelings into movements.” Anna Goyal, a student from the 2016-18 batch, was mesmerised by the movements and looked forward to attending more such sessions in the future.

Cyrus inspired the students to use dance as a way to connect with each other and express oneself. The session concluded with Cyrus telling the participants that the impetus for dance has to come from within.