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This year started with a lot of activity for choreographer Kalpana Raghuraman. After a performance in Chennai by her student Michelle Sequeira and the premiere of Towards Dawn at the Holland Festival, end of January, Kalpana has started a new creation called 'Padme'. Padme is a piece for 10 dancers and is a commission by the Stadsschouwburg Utrecht for the Natraj Next Level festival, which will be held Saturday 12 May.
JANUARY 2012 - TOWARDS DAWN
In November Kalpana started her new creation 'Towards Dawn' with Sigue Sayouba and Adonis Nebié, 2 contemporary dancers from Burkina Faso. After a first week in Korzo theater, they continued their work in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso at EDIT. And the creation finished at the home base, in Korzo theater.
The piece premiered at the openingweekend of the Holland Dance Festival as part of the 'Young Makers' initiative of Korzo theater.
The piece was perfromed 26, 27 & 28 January and received a beautifully written critic by Marcelle Schots in theaterkrant.nl
REVIEW – Towards Dawn
28 January 2012 - Korzo theater, the Hague, the Netherlands
Escaping to survive
by Marcelle Schots
A vibration in an eyebrow is the first phase of a movement initiated by the head. This movement trickles down through the entire body to pull down the dancer's violently shaking body to the floor. These first few minutes of Towards Dawn are already incredibly fascinating. Dancer Sayouba Sigue's impressive control over his body allows him to be able to stir or shake any muscle in his body.
Feeing like you do not belong, you are unloved or unsafe, can all be reasons for you to indulge in the comforts of consumerism, addictions or a virtual life. Choreographer Kalpana Raghuraman sees this as escapist behavior that modern man uses as a strategy to survival. In Towards Dawn she and her dancers avoid these strategies and face fear and pain head on.
Kalpana Raghuraman, artist in residence at Korzo productionhouse since 2010, opens the New Talents program at the Holland Dance Festival with Towards dawn. Raghuraman has a background in the Indian dance style Bharatanatyam, but mixes this classical form with modern dance. For Towards Dawn she has worked with dancers and Adonis Nébié and Sayouba Sigué from Burkina Faso.
Nébié and Sigué - very different in physique, energy and movement style – each follow their own path during the piece. Sometimes one tries to get closer to the other by pushing his head in the other one's knee, or literally clinging to the other and being dragged around. Only a few times do Sigué and Nébié actually come together in a synchronous dynamic dancing duet. In Towards Dawn light prevails like it does at dawn, or it drops to the floor as filtered through a leafy canopy. There is place for relaxation, high in the air or on a large pillow, but intense dreams also cause the body to be thrown around.
The collaboration that choreographer Raghuraman has sought out for this piece is very special. Details of Bharatanatyam, such as eye and head movements, the earthy nature of African dance in which explosive energy sets the entire body in motion, all in combination with modern dance, give Towards Dawn an extraordinary intensity.
Credits:
Choreography and concept: Kalpana Raghuraman ; Dancers: Adonis Nébié, Sigué SayoubaMusic composition: Simone Giacomini ; Set design: Kalpana Raghuraman & Peter Lemmens; Light design: Peter Lemmens ; Costume design: Jookje Zweedijk ; Production: Janneke van Stroe/ Korzo Producties
JANUARY 2012
Kalpana just returned from Chennai, where her student Michelle Sequeira gave a very succesfull Bharatanatyam margam performance at the Brahma Gana Sabha Dance Festival. The theater was full and the audience, filled with connaisseurs, was impressed and appreciative of the quality of dance and choreography!
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Performances of the community project 'Door de ogen van mijn stad' (through the eyes of my city) were amazing! Wonderful project with 20 Indian dancers from various Indian dance styles who share their worlds and views on their city with you. Audiences were touched and impressed by the performance with both intimate as exuberant moments. 4 nights standing ovation for the hard working dancers - thank you all of the artistic team for making this piece such a success! The CDA-politician Mitra Rambaran was very impressed and has written about the performance saying ' This production proves that amateurs can reach professional level with the help of a professional institution. Kalpana Raghuraman has done a great job. To read the webblog: http://www.mitrarambaran.nl/weblog.php?p=archived&l=14&aid=1516
For more info www.korzo.nl
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Beyond
Kalpana Raghuraman & Pedro Goucha Gomes
Korzo producties
photo: Folkert van Dunné
A leap into each other’s world. The Indian Kalpana Raghuraman and the Portuguese Pedro Goucha Gomes accepted the challenge to realize a genuine encounter between Indian dance and Western modern dance. Goucha created a choreography for Raghuraman, and Raghuraman reciprocated by making a work for a dancer trained in modern dance. Both choreographers come from a strong tradition, and both try to expand on these traditions. A collaboration teeming with inspiration!
Toxic Tears
Holy rivers in India are honoured as well as polluted. Through this paradox, the ritual purification that washes clean the souls of the inhabitants, also at the same time damages their bodies with chemicals. With the use of Bharatanatyam and modern dance, Goucha Gomes shows in Toxic Tears how tradition and the modern day meet and clash in this case.
Kiss of Life
Raghuraman, who was initiated by her mother into the secrets of the classic Indian temple dance Bharatanatyam, offers with Kiss of Life an alternative for the role models that the contemporary Indian woman is confronted with: the pious, introverted woman, or the Indian version of Barbie. The ‘Black Goddess’ Kali offers an alternative. She is wild and tempestuous, but at the same time gentle and tender. Free of traditional conventions, Raghuraman employs the Bharatanatyam to set a relevant example.
Talk & Show
Wed 9 Feb, 20:15 After Talk – Korzo
Toxic Tears choreography Pedro Goucha Gomes | performance Kalpana Raghuraman | light design Albert Tulling |
Kiss of Life choreography Kalpana Raghuraman | performance Sabina Perry | light design Albert Tulling | sound Peter Lemmens | dramaturgy Klaus Jurgens
Beyond is a Korzo production and is financially supported by the Ministry of OCW, Gemeente Den Haag and Fonds Podiumkunsten.
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What’s Up?!
Since September Raghuraman is officially associate choreographer at Korzo Theater in the Hague! For the coming year she will be collaborating with Korzo on different projects and she is very excited about this prospect.
Over the fall, she worked with the Portugese choreographer Pedro Goucha Gomes on the new solo 'Toxic Tears'. And now Raghuraman is finishing the creation of the solo 'Kiss of Life' for Sabina Perry. Both solos will be presented on 8 & 9 February 2011 during the Cadance Festival at the Korzo Theater under the title 'Beyond'.
Meanwhile Raghuraman is also setting up a community project with Indian diaspora dancers from The Hague. Together with these dancers, she will be creating a location performance called 'Door de ogen van mijn stad' (Through the eyes of my city).
workshop: door de ogen van mijn stad
‘Samen staan we sterker en laten we zien wat we kunnen!’
Zoek je als danser een artistieke uitdaging en wil je op een frisse en nieuwe manier om gaan met je eigen en met andere dansstijlen? Doe dan mee aan de dansproductie Door de ogen van mijn stad van choreografe Kalpana Raghuraman & Korzo producties en pak deze unieke kans om samen te werken met verschillende dansers!
Door de ogen van mijn stad wordt een samenspel van uiteenlopende Indiase dansvarianten, neergezet door talenten uit de regio Den Haag. Kalpana Raghuraman bundelt de krachten van deze danstalenten en ontplooit ze tot een stijloverstijgende danscreatie.
Voor deze dansproductie is Korzo op zoek naar Indiaas-Hindoestaanse dansers uit de regio Den Haag. Beheers je de basis in een Indiase dansstijl en spreekt het bovenstaande je aan, meld je dan aan voor een workshop op zondag 16 januari 2011 van 14.30 tot 17.00 uur in het nieuwe Korzo theater. Op basis hiervan wordt een selectie gemaakt.
De trainingsperiode is van maart t/m mei 2011. Het resultaat wordt van donderdag 19 t/m zondag 22 mei in het nieuwe Korzo theater uitgevoerd.
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