NET MicroFest

Here are the latest versions of some of our work-in-progress material, as performed at the NET MicroFest on Dec 5.

I choreographed my live dance in relation to Sandra's video, which originally integrated abhinaya and theory on exoticism.


password "NET"
Here is the latest experiment with expanding Tell Me, Sister.  I post this only for the sake of dialogue, for the footage taken this day stays zoomed out the whole time, which unfortunately means that you can't see any of the video on my back or the nuances of abhinaya, and thus lose the majority of the intent of the work.  However, several things may be useful to watch.  If you watch the end starting at 9:30, you'll get a sense of the transition from the sitting abhinaya to skin. Currently I don't think this works, as it seems to visually distract from my performance rather than undermining the courtesan by inscribing her with societal discourse or making the audience aware of their gaze upon her.  Also under debate is how I transition from widow to courtesan, which not everyone is finding believable.  To see this transition as currently stands, watch from 5:50.


At the moment I feel this solo is no longer holding together as a cohesive whole -- like it's trying to accomplish too much and exploding at the seams.  At this moment I'd like to let it explode, fragment, be blown apart and freed from the narrative structure it's currently encased in to see what might happen.  Incidentally, a friend who's experienced abuse compared the experience to being exploded apart -- fragmented -- and that as you try to put yourself together, you never quite achieve the same "wholeness" as before.  So too the histories of the courtesan are fragmented, incomplete, and irrecoverable.  I wonder if we can reflect this compositionally.


Also, here are notes I took based on the feedback session we had after the Sunday show, with respondents Carole Kim (who focuses on live video performance and performance-based video installation) and Carol McDowell (dancer, improviser, interdisciplinary artist).   

A duet for one: dancing with virtual Sandra

Recently Sandra developed a new solo with video projection that was filmed outdoors in Munich.  The video projection intercuts footage of her dancing with academic theory about exoticism.  Sandra's solo was performed at the IGNITE! contemporary dance festival in Delhi and served as the opening section of "Tell Me, Sister" (see projection solo in progress), which I performed instead of Shyamala.

While in Delhi, Sandra and I discussed that it might be interesting to repeat her projection material throughout the course of the larger show, but with different performers doing the live dance.  So for this study I choreographed myself in relation to her, drawing on her original movement material.  For this version, I envision that rather than having the theory present, it might be nice for the sections of writing to be replaced by a simple white background.

password: "bier tent"

video: Sandra Chatterjee
live dance: Cynthia Ling Lee
direction: Shyamala Moorty

Feedback Questions:

(1) What do you see as being the relationship between myself and Sandra's projection?  How does the relationship evolve?

(2) How do you imagine that this version colors, shifts, and changes Sandra's original version?

(3) How do you think this material relates to other material from our process and to the larger show?

(4) What kind of sound/music do you think would support the piece?

(5) Is this compelling enough material to keep working on?  Suggestions for further development?

Tawaif, Interrupted, or, Theorizing the Courtesan

Since learning to perform "Tell Me, Sister," the story of the child widow who is abused by her in-laws and empowers herself by becoming a courtesan, I have been thinking about the piece's ending.  I would like to avoid romanticizing the figure of the courtesan as some sort of "proto-feminist."  Rather, I would like to recognize that she exercised her agency and power within the confines of a patriarchal structure.  I also feel that it is ultimately impossible as a contemporary woman and classically trained dancer to understand and grasp the historical courtesan in any sort of "pure" way, unmediated by society's myriad perceptions of her.

Thus I've been toying with the idea of undermining the courtesan at the height of her power by having Chakravarty's theory on how the courtesan is regarded in Indian cultural consciousness typed upon my face as I do sitting abhinaya.  This would occur during what was formerly the ending of Tell Me, Sister.  The image was inspired by one of the images from my artbook, Harassing the Sanskrit Heroine :

Shyamala and I tried this in rehearsal, and at first it seemed potentially interesting:

password "shyamalabai"

In addition, Sangita and I recently collaborated on reworking my dance-for-camera study, "skin," which uses the same theoretical text.  After reshooting it, Sangita did a beautiful job editing the footage into mysterious, organic imagery where Sumita Chakravarty's academic theory slips and melts on the not-quite-recognizable landscape of the female body.

I thought it might be interesting to transition from typing the theory on my face to a projection of "skin" that I would somehow interact with live.  However, we ran into some technical problems -- the two projections interrupt each other when the "skin" projection fills the back wall (which is why they are side by side here, rather than fading from one to another).  In addition, the typing on my face spills over to the back wall in a way I find distracting.  Here is rehearsal footage of this experiment:

password: "discursive"

Feedback Questions:
(1) Based on this footage, I'm thinking I may scrap the typing on my face altogether and instead transition straight from the sitting abhinaya into interacting with the projection on the back wall.  Do you think this is a good idea?
(2) Which movements are most effective with the video projection?  (I was just improvising ad hoc here.)
(3) What do you see as being the relationship between myself and the projection?
(4) How long do you stay interested in myself interacting with the projection?  Would you like to see less or more?
(5) Other thoughts/suggestions?