Final Day: Cliches, SUNOH phrases, brainstorms

This morning we came up with a slightly revised show order for the trio version of the show (supporting material in gray):

Skype/letter

Courtesan clichés

Ranri

SUNOH BN in the round

Tigress/shupurnaka/Dissembodied

Uma stories

SUNOH vocal chakradar

Cyn logomotion

Tonsil/voice

I listen-I take you in

SKYPE Sandra/Hidden Tamarind

SUNOH-cliche phrases

Skin remix

We also worked on developing the (courtesan) cliches and the SUNOH phrases.
CLICHES:
We came up with some new cliches about women that directly relate to the non-courtesan stories in the show:
exotic native
helpless victim
temple dancer
geeky professor
intimidating brainiac
powerful and refined
self-flagellating
uninhibited girl child
subdued, self-conscious girl
exotic strip/lap dancer
pack of girlfriends, clique
emblem of ancient spiritual tradition
feminine Indian-ness
diva
revered guru
reverent disciple
cutesy lollipop girl

Each of us then choreographed one leg of the chakradar, "tat tat ta tuka," that is used in Cyber Chat. We mixed movement based on these cliches with movement from the original courtesan metaphrase. Then we glued our separate phrases together (Cyn, Anj, then Shy) to make the complete chakradar tora: password "cliche"

Cliche chakradar -group from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.


SUNOH phrases:
-Cyn and Shy learned the complete version of Anj's contemporary SUNOH phrase.
password: "sunoh"

Sunoh phrase contemporary from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
-We learned Shy's BN SUNOH phrase. As further future expansion, we're interested in exploring doing Shy's Bharatnatyam SUNOH phrase in the round (rhythmically) and in Anj creating rhythmic variations on Shy's BN SUNOH phrase. We thought this section might possibly serve as transitional material between Ranri and Anj's Tigress story.
-We worked with Cyn's SUNOH text to the Cyber Chat chakradar tora. We divided the phrases among the 3 of us and came up with the following structure: (1) pedestrian (2) with gesture (3) in unison. For further renditions, we thought the center phrase might be interesting done as bols instead of the English words.
Password: "sunoh"

Sunoh chakradar vocal from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
We thought that perhaps we could use this rhythmic text between Uma^3 and Cyn's Logomotion. We would sit as a group of women braiding the cloth worn as Uma's costume into Cyn's braid. After a bit of silence we slip into the chakradar tora, first quietly then building: this establishes the tala. We move into unison drut theka; Anj becomes my accompanist reciting the syllables, Shy sits in the audience keeping time, Cyn puts on her wig.

Ranri idea:
Anj had an idea of another way to embody Rasulan bai's struggle, as we have been feeling (and audiences have noted) that it is a bit too similar to My Silent Cry. She thought that the piece could start with Cyn already as a courtesan, and Shy as Veena Oldenburg coming in to study the courtesans. Cyn would tell Rasulanbai's story as a flashback. During the struggle scene, it could transform from the struggle with the cloth into a danced version of anger and resistance to the beating that draws more clearly on kathak movement, footwork, and rhythmic structures: thus the transition would occur through movement rather than through narrative. When the cloth comes off, she will be dressed as a courtesan rather than in the white blouse and petticoat. If the story is not yet clear, after dancing perhaps Cyn could tell the last part of her story using direct quotes from the fieldwork, and end with asking Veena the question: "Tell me, sister, what would you have done?" Otherwise she could simply end by asking the question.
Here's a rough idea of the kathak ending.  We haven't mapped out the flashback part yet.  apologies for the bad projection and lighting.  Shyamala couldn't cap the projector and do the lights and the camera all at once so the screen begins and ends with the computer rather then with no projection.
password:  "tell me"

Ranri Kathak end from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/18936094

TIGRESS brainstorm:
This brainstorm would tell the story about a guy in college, whom she had had a crush on, who suddenly became sexually interested in Anj after seeing her perform BN. Anj would do a voice-over in a formal Bharatnatyam fashion: "The next item...." At first it would seem like a standard description of an item, but it would actually turn out that it was describing Anj's story. The voice-over would continue throughout the course of the piece.

The stage would be split into two with the long cloth dividing it into stage left and right areas. Anj would be stage right in full BN regalia, doing a mixture of her varnam and Shurpanaka material to Carnatic music. On stage left would be the man's fantasy of Anjali using dissembodied material to bad Indian fusion music. Cyn would play the part of the man, and Shy the exoticized object of his fantasy. The scene would play on one side, freeze and play on the others, switching a few times between reality and fantasy.

At the end of Anj's varnam, Shy would exit. Cyn and Anj would turn to face each other, drawing on the trope of the heroine and her lord, spread out the cloth and get under the bedcovers. At this point the music would shift into a distorted mix of the Carnatic and fusion musical styles. The cloth would start getting tossed around as if in a love scene, with bits of BN ornament and costume getting thrown out, until the man says, "No, don't take those off!" After awhile he'd come up for air and say to the audience, "She's an Indian tigress!" then leave her, sated. The sound would then disappear into silence, and Anj would emerge from under the covers in a "real" moment, horrified.

Finally Cynthia brainstormed ways to expand the cliches about women:
*choreograph to the other rhythm in the skype call…

(or other rhythms)

can play with doing it cross rhythmicall

*Integrating the words somehow (in rhythm?)

*big pile of costumes and props: either audience dress us, or they get dressed up, or have the audience label us (index cards)

*collecting their clichés in intermission then performing them

*black slips as a way to tie into skin remix

pleasure of embodiying them needs to be investigated (write about it, embody it?)

*how find underbelly and turn it around…one at a time gets stuck in a particular phrase that they’re grappling with, response words Carole asked us for might be a way to investigate this.

*teach a bunch of audience members some of the cliché movmenet with the rest of the audience shouting them out.

Photo shoot and ordering

PHOTO SHOOT

Andre Andreev came in the morning and took photos of us.  In addition to shooting some of our new multimedia adventures with Carole Kim, we had great fun dressing up in composite courtesan cliche outfits!  

SHOW ORDER

Yesterday we discussed possibilities for modular formats and decided that we each have two anchor pieces and depending on who is performing live, those anchor pieces will be present.  The minor pieces will be chosen according to what supports the particular anchor pieces in the show.  

Today we looked at an actual order based on the above ideas.

Here is a trio version of the show for Cyn, Shy and Anj with Babli as a long distance element.  

Themes:

*: long distance

C:  cloth  (does anj have a cloth moment?)

L: listening

S:  stereotypes (courtesan clichés)

W: wrist

B: Babli (

H:  fake braid?

1. Skype/letter: (S, L*, B, C?) shy problemetize cyn being courtesan, and as Cyn is always asking, how can we embody the strength of their legacy when we can’t even imagine what their lives and dances might have been like?

2. Courtesan clichés (S, B)  short group version? words that were in shy’s letter/that set up next hidden tamarind and tigress, with skype rhythms:  seductress, whore, vagina with teeth, look at titles, is there a way to tie the cloth into a sexy dress for Anj?

3. Sandra SKYPE/Hidden Tamarind (B, S, C? L*) or Ranri – (W, C)

4. Tigress/shupurnaka/Courtesan clichés? (S, B torso?)

5. Uma stories (W, C, L)  Scrim up at end, Cyn and Anj help take off cloth and then re-braid while all talking about the show or having a real moment

6. Cyn logomotion (C, L ) with Shy support, Anj timer

7. Tonsil/voice  (L) Cyn and Shy encourage and show inside to choreographic process and then become the audience?

8. I listen-I take you in (W, L*) Shy and cyn bring down scrim for Anj as she gets cozy at computer?

9. Sunoh phrases/courtesan clichés (S, L, B? ) one at a time drop out and set up some tech and then come back into phrase?  If it’s rhythmic we can keep reciting when we’re doing tech, babli as accompaniest?

10. Skin remix (S) Can we use other words that reflect the rest of the show (clichés of other pieces…”victim” “helpless” “scared child” “voiceless” or not just clichés….Silenced, bound, etc?)

Modular Show!

MULTIMEDIA
In the morning, we worked with Carole on multimedia. Mona and Sangita were present and gave lovely feedback.

Uma^3
We started by piecing together all the Uma material into a single piece: Shy's face dance + Shy's SUNOH abhinaya phrase + I didn't say a word + My Silent Cry. We were interested in how this structure could highlight the supportive friend (the sakhi), the sense of a community of support and sharing stories present at SAN.

password "SAN"

Uma x 3 from Cynthia Ling Lee 3 on Vimeo.

skin remix
(video coming...)

CYN SKYPES SANDRA/HIDDEN TAMARIND

Cyn also had a new idea for introducing the courtesan in her full performative glory (rather than as an abject victim of abuse), while also acknowledging Cyn's positionality and her scholarly relationship with Sandra. Here's a super rough mock-up of the first portion:

password "skype"

Skype with Sandra: writing subaltern courtesan histories from Cynthia Ling Lee 2 on Vimeo.
I envisioned that this could be a real SKYPE call during the show, with me sitting onstage with my computer live, and my computer desktop projected onto the scrim. I couldn't test this with Sandra, so I pretended here using a screenshot -- which is pretty funny and could perhaps be a back-up if a theater doesn't have wireless.

In the live version, I imagined that when Sandra answered the phone, she would be in the middle of undressing from a classical Kuchipudi costume, including taking off a fake braid to reference my Logomotion solo. I might also bring in the same books and kurta that I wear during Cyber Chat.

After finishing up the call, I would invite an audience member to join me as my patron, as shown in the video. During this time the set-up would shift to a similar one as Shy's face dance, with the frames and one live feed camera upstage, and N. Indian light classical music would start floating in. I'm imagining the central arch could look like a lattice work window. The stage crew and/or other performers set up cushions and a rug upstage behind the scrim and escort my patron to his privileged viewing position upstage of the scrim behind the live feed camera. The rest of the audience would peer at our live bodies through the lattice work while also seeing my face/body doing "hidden tamarind." Here's the original video for reference (password "cynthiabai"):

MODULAR SHOW
At lunchtime we met with Sandra on Skype, where we discussed Shy's proposal for how to approach the show in a modular way:
1. There are 8-9 anchoring pieces. We each have two: one being ourselves, and one relating to the courtesan's and/or the SAN women and/or to each other. When there's technical ability we can always end with skin as the 9th anchor. Then, depending on who's in a particular show, those pieces become the main material. So, if the show is a trio, there are 6 anchors and peripheral material. If the show is a duet there are 4 anchoring pieces and supporting material.

2. I like the idea of each piece having others as support (listeners/chorus/peripheral characters), or integral parts (otherwise why is the title "SUNOH! Tell Me, Sister?" and why are we doing a group show?).

3. Rather than connect all the minor pieces to each other, we can choose connecting material based on what will support or frame or contextualize the main material. Whenever possible, the minor pieces also address the long distance process.

After our SKYPE meeting, Shy, Anj, and Cyn brainstormed what a show with the three of us would look like. We mapped out our anchor pieces and considered possible connections to supporting material:

In the end, we came up with the following anchor pieces:
Skype-Shy Letter
Tonsil-Voice story
Ranri
Learning to Walk Like Radha (Logomotion duet)
Uma Stories
skin remix

And the following supporting material:
SUNOH phrase material
I listen - I take you into my body
Sandra Skype Call-hidden tamarind

SUNOH PHRASE MATERIAL

Cyn wrote a rhythmic script combining Anj's phrase material with one of the Skype call rhythms.

Possible Prelude: Someone rushes on, says, “I have something to tell you!” Whispers in others’ ears. This leads into this following rhythmic interaction, combined with Anj’s Sunoh material (abhinaya, BN, contemporary)...

What? Wait – no, really?

-- -- -- You know

that one? -- --

I think I do... -- --

No! -- -- --the

same problem? -- -- What a

(click teeth) God will it ever get

better? -- Such a (slap hand) Hm

will it ever get better? -- If you

(sigh) wait maybe it’ll get

bet -- ter....

repeat 3x

Dramaturgy continued

Dramaturgy
We spent most of the day working on dramaturgical questions regarding each piece in the showing, plus a couple more.  Mona and Ravi were here with us during the process, as well as Babli on Skype for an hour.  Here are our notes, preceded by the possible titles we came up with.

duet for one; longing for babli

hidden tamarind

Sunoh remix; skin remix; neon; the matrix

Cyber Chat; Hey are you there?;  Cyber Communications: An Introduction

Silent Cry; Silenced; My Silent Cry; In the Dark; the tears went running, running; All my tears running, running; Dry Mouth, Salt Water

Diss Embodied; EAT ME; Exotic Object; Re-press, Diss member

Fetishized; Fetish; Whip, Chain, Stick; Leather and Snow; Closed Fist, Open Link; Diss Member

The Pleasure of Longing; Love in Separation; Yearning; Someday

Losing My Tonsils, Finding My Voice; Can You Hear Me Now?; The Loudest Voice; Muted; Mute and Unmute

Cliches; Composite Courtesan; Framed!; Show-time; Surface

viva-la-vulva; Crass Seductress; I Want You?/You Want Me?!?; Vagina with Teeth; The Vamp and the Demoness

Guru Shishya; Dressing the Part; Step by Step; Learning to Walk Like Radha; Misfit

I Didn't Say a Word; The Thorn, the Leaf, and the Butterfly; Face to Face; Silent Cry

Sringar; Getting Dressed; Beyond Beauty; You're So Vain; Fading

Tell Me, Sister; Ranri; Bitter Salt; Escape; Journey

SUNOH material, continued.
-Cyn and Anj learned Shy's abhinaya Sunoh phrase.
-Shyamala and Cynthia learned Anj's contemporary Sunoh phrase.
-Cynthia had the idea to compose Anj's textual score to the kathak rhythms used in the SKYPE call  and taught Anj the rhythms (Shy knows them already).  Currently her text consists of the following: "I have something to tell you.  What?  No.  Wait.  You know that one.  Yes.  Always the same problem.  Will it ever get better?  Really!  [sigh]"

Uma Stories
We brainstormed a way to combine the different material related to Uma's story: Shy's face dance, I didn't say a word, and My Silent Cry:

 1. Start with Shy's face dance to live feed.

 2. Anj then enters as Shy's friend, using material from Shy's Sunoh abhinaya phrase to comfort her.  Her hand appears in one live feed, her profile in another.  Shy asks Anj, "Friend, what would you have done?"

 3. Anj considers Shy's question, sits in Shy's chair, and Cyn enters as friend/camera operator.  Shy goes offstage or to the side.  They reposition the chair and camera slightly to face a diagonal.  They start "I didn't say a word" - Anj doing in silence the first time, Cyn reading with her on repetition (as if she, as friend, is interpreting or bringing voice to her story). 

 

4. Shy starts My Silent Cry as Anj and Cyn do full run-through of padam, Anj transitioning into ]wrist[ for 2nd half.  When Anj and Cyn finish poem they reposition their bodies to watch Shy.  When Shy goes to take cloth off their face, they move forward to lift the scrim so Shy has room to run in circle.

skin remix
Carole had some new ideas for the skin remix.  She requested that we each give her "a list of words re: your thoughts about / relationship to / relevance of the list of cliches of the courtesan and/or of being a female dancer w/your specific training, etc."  Here is what Shy and Cyn came up with:

She also offered the following possible score to try out:
CYNTHIA, text on floor
live-feed begins
Loren's music
Sangita's SKIN video begins on back wall
SHYAMALA, ANJALI "chorus" in back layer

SHYAMALA, ANJALI move to front layer start creating word scape with projection and additional words written on torn paper, CYNTHIA joins
group dance
fade in new music track (more upbeat, rhythmic? vocalizations?)

END w/question: "Sisters, what would you have done?" seated, facing backwards

Shy and Cyn combined logomotion duets
we did a 30 min. improv seeing what it would be like to combine some of our material. Here are a few excerpts we found interesting.
password: "logomotion"

cloth logomotion duet from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Dramaturgical Questions; Listening and Retelling

DRAMATURGICAL QUESTIONS

Mona, the dramaturg with whom Shy and Cyn worked with at NET MicroFest, offered us the following questions to mull over:

"1. What question, or set of questions, are you exploring with each sequence? This is not something you should be able to answer, but I have found it useful to think about it. I like to generate lists of questions and then compare them, see how the scene works toward confronting the audience with questions. It's in keeping with Mira Rafalowicz's process of dramaturgical questioning (attached), which I've found a useful tool . . .

It might be interesting to write these questions down.

It also might be instructive to create titles for each scene that evoke the essence of what happens, is evoked, communicated in each scene. One can make these titles anything from very straightforward and clear (i.e. "courtesan cliches") to more poetic and visceral ("silent cry").

2. Think through the whole piece in terms of what your relationship is to the audience moment-to-moment. I understand why you decided not to worry about audience placement at this point. At the same time, where the audience is in relation to the piece is crucial. Physical placement determines in many ways emotional and intellectual engagement. Your discoveries as you generate the questions under (1) will influence audience placement. The "courtesan cliches" scene, for instance, is successful because it engages/confronts the audience in a very direct way. What is the nature of our engagement scene-to-scene?

Maybe each of you can write down/articulate somehow what you want each scene to do in that regard.

This issue seems especially important as your story engages individuals who are professional performers. When I was watching the videos in the exhibit I was struck by how the dancers control their audience, how this power/control is in many ways a central attraction of the performance (one of them manages to control the spectator merely through her voice, compelling him to stop his carriage and enter the performance space . . .). Perhaps you can help each other by very consciously putting on the hat of audience at certain moments in rehearsal?

3. I think there could be great possibilities in using your working process even more as a guiding principle throughout the piece: When you work across geographical distance, through skyping etc., you observe each other (and your selves). You have to continuously find ways to "write yourself into each other's processes / creations." Heiner Müller talked about this in a public letter to Robert Wilson, explaining why he (Heiner) couldn't write the text for Death Destruction & Detroit II. He couldn't find a way to "write himself into Bob's process." Each of you continuously does. There is something in this communal and at the same time very individual process that relates to the courtesan culture (at least as I understood it from Veena's lecture). At the same time, it relates to the community of women (and other) survivors who have found a way to tell their stories. The telling can happen because there are listeners. How do you listen to each other, observe each other, invite each other to comment, play with your work/stories? The opening scene sets up this structure / idea, but I lost it as the piece went on. It re-surfaces periodically, but more peripherally. When Cynthia was dressing while Anjali was doing her piece and we talked about the screen, this issue became more clear to me. I thought her presence created a compelling tension. Not that this should be the choice, but investigating presence of other performers/on-stage observers/mirrors at certain moments might be of value.

In this context, you could play with the Brechtian device of the re-play (just for rehearsal purposes, although it might find its way into performance . . .). What would happen, for instance, if each of the performers did an improvisation (perhaps guided by Anjali) on her voice, the loss/recovery of her voice? It's such a central moment/reversal in the survivor's journey. It will gain power through rep&rev (repetition and revision/variation).

This connects to the mirroring: I think some motifs could be mirrored more extensively. At the moment nothing is 'over-worked.' Perhaps make a list of motifs (face, hands, marks, tracks, wounds, mouth/voice/ eyes, frames/doorways, borders, cloth, etc. etc.) and see how they are present in each scene. Then ask how else they could be present? How is each of these charged with different meanings as the piece progresses? Try out choices. Examine impact."

In response to this, we've given ourselves the tasks of (1) giving TITLES to each piece, (2) articulating the central intent/questions/audience relationship of each piece and (3) examining when the MOTIFS of performers, video, text, movement/gesture are present and absent in each piece, and what the function of that presence and absence are.

Cyn:

(1) Cyber Communications: An Introduction

intention: introduces us to ensemble, internet/Skype mediated process, how art-making sits inside everyday home life, and central themes of the show
motifs: performers (4 on video, Shy live), video (single rear projection), text (rhythmic, spoken, sung), movement (gestural storytelling/communication)
(2) Leather and Snow
function: brings courtesan cliche into contemporary times, fragmenting of body, showing geographical context

motifs: performers (Sandra only - would need to be integrated with others), video (single rear projection), text (none), movement (gestural and imagistic)
(3) the tears went running, running... (or "dry mouth, salt water")
function: a minimalist abstraction of loneliness and subtle despair. Based on Uma's story but could attain other valences if concrete connections are made to other material (ravi suggests working with "kahe rukata" thumri as sound).
motifs: performers (Shy, both live and live feed), video (frames plus 2 live feeds), text (none, needs sound support), movement (facial expression). Tension between solitariness of live body and the intimacy of live feed close-up on face (allowing involvement with abhinaya in theatrical setting)

(4) EAT ME

function: a humorous commentary on the exoticizing gaze
motifs: performers (Sandra on video, but not identifiable, Shy and Cyn live), video (small on front scrim), text (Madonna's Om Shanti lyrics and lascivious audience comments), movement (full-bodied dance)
(5) The Pleasure of Longing

(6) Ranri (Note: "ranri" is a bengali word that means both widow and courtesan)
function: tells/embodies the story of a child widow turned courtesan. covert resistance, longing for sweetness, and suffering of physical violence connect to the SAN women. still need to pull out her positionality and strength as courtesan.
motifs: performers (Cyn live and on initial video, Anj on video). video (projected onto body and ceiling). text: in projection - gives context/history to the character. monologue - expresses the character's resistance, bitterness, sensuality, longing in the present. during wrist: clarifies that the woman is being subjected to violence. movement: stillness, gesture, stretching cloth, footwork, angsty ripping and collapse.

(7) Losing My Tonsils, Finding My Voice

(8) Composite Courtesan (stolen from Carole)

(9) viva-la-vulva (from Sandra Cisneros' "Loose Woman")
function: the bold, the audacious, the super sexual, desiring, too-much woman
motifs: performers (Cyn and Anj), video (none), text (none), movement (Bharatnatyam, pseudo hip hop)

(10) Learning to Walk like Radha
function: the story of a misfit in the classical Indian dance world.
motifs: performer (Cyn live), video (none), text (improvised spoken text, rhythmic syllables, song), movement (pedestrian, manipulation of cloth, task-based, related to spoken word, kathak)

(11) The Thorn, the Leaf, and the Butterfly
function: Variations on Uma's story
motifs: perfomers (Shy, Anj, Cyn), video (live feed of Anj's face, frame), text (poem spoken aloud), movement (face and hands, full bodied struggle with cloth, task-based)

(12) Shringar/Getting Dressed

(13) s k i n remix
function: How are cliches/conceptions of women written on our dancing bodies? How do we pass through, resist, critique and interact with those projections?
motifs: performers (all live performers, Cyn on "skin"), video ("skin" on rear wall, projected words on floor/dancers' body, live feed of dancers on scrim), text (recaps/fragments of all text in show), movement (mostly centered around interacting with text physically, needs to be deepened)

SUNOH! TELL ME, SISTER PHRASES
We also continued to work on our "SUNOH! Tell Me, Sister" phrases:

Anj's phrases (abhinaya, Bharatnatayam, creative), password "listen"

Anj Sunoh phrases from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Cyn: Listening for the Tawaif's Trace (abhinaya)
shot through the window: (password "murky")

Listening for the Trace of the Tawaif from Cynthia Ling Lee 2 on Vimeo.

shot in the studio, password "listen"

Listening to the Trace of the Tawaif (studio) from Cynthia Ling Lee 2 on Vimeo.


LISTENING AND RETELLING

In addition, we decided to expand on Cyn's response to Hari's Sunoh phrase assignment ("I listen, I take you into my body") by having each of us respond to each other's stories through our own personal lens.

Shy's listening/retelling of Cyn's logomotion/cloth solo:
Password: logomotion

shy logomotion from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Note from Shy: I meant to do a section about Cynthia teaching me to walk when she was directing me in the widow to courtesan piece that would parallel her walk section with her teacher. Because it was an improvisation I forgot that part but have done some writing on it and think it would have gone in the part when I cross the river to become the courtesan. Would be interesting to go between the character being surprised that she has to learn to walk, and me finding the specificities of kathak hard on my BharataNatyam trained body.

Shy's Retelling of Cyber Chat
Password: "cyber"

Cyber Re-Miss from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Note from Shy: This may be a part of my listening to Sandra...it started out that way but became it's own thing...I'm still working on the rest of listing/retelling Sandra.


Mona also pointed out that our material seemed to fall into two categories: (1) intense involvement with a personal story and (2) ironic reflection on a (courtesan) cliche, with the latter less investigated. In an attempt to bridge the two worlds, Cyn did a quick choreographic study of a pseudo-kavita I wrote for my artbook, Harassing the Sanskrit Heroine. She was imagining it might go into my Logomotion improv somewhere, since her personal story might lend itself to dealing with cliches, insofar as it speaks about the collision of trying to fit into the mold of a classical Indian dancer.

password "kavita"

Harassing the Sanskrit Heroine from Cynthia Ling Lee 2 on Vimeo.

Taking Stock/Sunoh phrases

TAKING STOCK
We arrived at rehearsal pretty exhausted after yesterday's showing. Halfway through the residency, having produced a lot of material, we started to take stock and to discuss how to move forward with the work. Under discussion: the modularity of the show, whether Shy, Cyn, and Anj talked about what studies we found the strongest. We were basically in agreement that we found the following work compelling (knowing that some of these would be switched in or out depending on who's performing):
1. skype call/email
2. Shy face dance
3. Tell Me, Sister
4. Anj's story/jathi
5. Courtesan Cliches (metaphrase)
6. Cyn's Logomotion
7. Silent Cry
8. skin remix

SUNOH PHRASES
We also started work on our Sunoh! Tell Me, Sister phrases. Here is Hari's original assignment:

Create 3 different phrases based on the title, “SUNOH! Tell Me, Sister”. The three phrases should be as follows: (1) solely through abhinaya; (2) through your respective classical dance style; and (3) through your own creative improvisational style. The phrases should be around 1 minute each. Please create your phrases in isolation and not show them to each other. Please remember the phrasing and be prepared to show me when I arrive.

Cynthia did part 3 of the assignment with the following, very raw speaking-moving improvisation: "I listen - I take what I hear into my own body." The assignment also took into consideration one of Mona's questions:

"I think there could be great possibilities in using your working process even more as a guiding principle throughout the piece: When you work across geographical distance, through skyping etc., you observe each other (and your selves). You have to continuously find ways to "write yourself into each other's processes / creations." Heiner Müller talked about this in a public letter to Robert Wilson, explaining why he (Heiner) couldn't write the text for Death Destruction & Detroit II. He couldn't find a way to "write himself into Bob's process." Each of you continuously does. There is something in this communal and at the same time very individual process that relates to the courtesan culture (at least as I understood it from Veena's lecture). At the same time, it relates to the community of women (and other) survivors who have found a way to tell their stories. The telling can happen because there are listeners. How do you listen to each other, observe each other, invite each other to comment, play with your work/stories?

In this context, you could play with the Brechtian device of the re-play (just for rehearsal purposes, although it might find its way into performance . . .). What would happen, for instance, if each of the performers did an improvisation (perhaps guided by Anjali) on her voice, the loss/recovery of her voice? It's such a central moment/reversal in the survivor's journey. It will gain power through rep&rev (repetition and revision/variation)."

password "rasika"

I listen; I take what I hear into my own body from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.

Shy's assignments: password for all is "sunoh"
abhinaya:

Shy Sunoh phrase abhinaya from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
After I showed the Abhinaya one to Cyn and Anj they saw connections to both Hidden Tamarind and Uma's love of the fragrance of roses and feeling she is a flower blooming. Perhaps there is a bridge between the two worlds here. Cyn also saw a gesture from "cyber chat" and thought I might be able to incorporate a few more gestures from it. She also wondered who is the other person? is it a figure 8 live feed or a voice over?


Bharata Natyam:

Shy Sunoh Tell Me Sister, Bharata Natyam from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
I made this to the rhythm of the words "Su-noh, Tell me, Sister" in different configurations. Cyn and Anj were interested to hear these vocalized. Cyn also had a fun idea which I really like....that some of us are the courtesans and one of us is Veena Oldenburg asking them about their stories. They teasingly encourage one who is reluctant to tell her story with this material...and she finally does, which could be the "Tell me, Sister" piece with Cyn's new monologue in it.

own style:

Shy Sunoh phrase, creative from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.
I made this to the rhythm of the words like the last one...but it goes beyond the Bharata Natyam a little bit. I was confused when I was making it whether I was doing Bharata Natyam or my own creative thing. Cyn and Anj thought it was more celebratory. I think maybe a part or two could be combined with the Bharata Natyam phrase above and the rest could be cut.

Retreat Open Rehearsal

This was a chance to share with our collaborators everything we were interested in from the first week. Thanks to Carole Kim for creating and running most of the multimedia, to Loren Nerell for creating and running the sound with Ravi Deo, to Kedar Lawrence for rigging and running the lights, and to Iyatunde Dixon for documenting the pieces. Also present were our collaborators Mona Heinze and Uma.

Cyber Chat/Shy's email, password "sunoh"

Cyber Chat with Shy from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Fetish, password "cliche"

Babli Cliche 1- draft from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

Silent Cry Face Dance (Shy), password "silent"

Silent Cry Face Dance from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Diss embodied, password "7 chakras"

diss embodied from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Varnam, password "longing"

Anj's Varnam from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Tell Me, Sister, password "ranri"

Tell Me, Sister from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Anj's story/jathi, password "Anj"

Anj Silence Jathi from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Courtesan Cliches Metaphrase, password "cliche"

Courtesan Metaphrase from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Crass/Shurpanaka, password "bold"

Crass/Shurpanaka from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Cyn's Logomotion Improv, password "logomotion"
Sadly, the video camera's memory card ran out halfway through Cynthia's improv, so only about half of it is documented here:

Cyn Logomotion, open showing from Post Natyam Collective on Vimeo.

Crystal Ball Padam (My Silent Cry/I didn't say a word), password "silent"

My Silent Cry/I didn't say a word from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Anj's Beautiful + Sandra's Past, password "beautiful"

Anj's Beautiful_Sandra's Past from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.

skin - password "skin"

skin with live feed from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.

Retreat Day 5: improv, crystal ball, and diss embodied

"diss embodied"
This study layers a bunch of courtesan cliches: Sandra's "commercially sexualized" video, Shy's Oriental doll, Shy's loose woman (danced by Cyn), lecherous voices from the "exotic temple dancers." Ravi picked out some fun music to go along with it, and we even found a way to integrate Shy's clear plastic half-manikin that was lying around the studio.  In performance Shy's face would need to be lit better behind the scrim so that she could be seen.
diss embodied password: cliche

diss-embodied from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Anj story improvisation
Anjali wrote a freewrite yesterday about the experience of feeling silenced and her dance serving as an alternative outlet for expression.  The content was exciting because it integrated her personal relationship to the dance form and the notion of abuse, thus tying together some thematic threads usefully and extending the notion of "I didn't say a word" further.  This morning she came up with a few movements based on it.  Cyn and Shy directed her in an improv to include the story and movements. Here are two versions. We're thinking that the end "dancey" section will actually be a fierce version of the rhythmic (jati) section of her study "Tell me how much you love me" from the other day.

Anj 1 password is "story"

Anj improvised story 1 from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Anj 2 password is "story"

Anj improvised story 2 from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Crystal Ball
This is actually "I didn't say a word" (English translation of a Ksettraya padam adapted and read by Cyn, abhinaya with live feed by Anj) and "My Silent Cry" (dance by Shy), but all done live.  We had previously done it with a recorded version of Cyn speaking the poem.  In this new live version, the three of us could improvise and respond to each other in much the same way theorized by Avanthi Meduri in her article, "Multiple Pleasures: Improvisation in Bharatanatyam."  Meduri speaks about three different elements - the poetic text, the singer (replaced here by a reader), and the dancer - which refract off each other through improvisation much like a crystal ball reflecting different facets of light, with only the text staying constant.  Taking into account Sandra's feedback that she would like to see more variations, we played with repeating verses in the way a padam might be done to emphasize Anj's and Cyn's ability to interpret the same line differently.

Crystal Ball Password: "padam"

Crystal Ball Padam from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Tell me, Sister
Cyn worked more on her new Tell me, Sister monologue, borrowing gestures from some of the other material produced this week.  Shy directed her and worked with her on integrating it into the original piece.

-no video

We spent the rest of the time reflecting back on our week and figuring out which nuggets are the most interesting to share with Hari and our collaborators on Monday!

Retreat Day 4: writing and multimedia

Unedited letter to collaborators
Shyamala wrote a freewrite that we thought might give context to the piece. We were brainstorming that Cyber chat would be projected with Shyamala live (or ideally with everyone who's performing live in the show performing a section, either isolated by lights or all popping up and down from behind a table whenever there's a switch of frame in the video). After the call ends, Shyamala would be alone and frustrated and write an email to everyone....

Hi Dears,

I’m feeling confused about the fact that we’ve just chosen as a group to use the courtesan texts as the basis for our next project. I’m interested in the legacy of our dance forms as something that’s been inherited from courtesan communities but I never really felt connected to the courtesan texts or to recreating old material over and over. Of course there are some juicy padams but I still want to relate to now. If I wanted to do that I would have stayed being a Bharata Natyam dancer. But I always felt like a fake when I was all dolled up with the jewelry and telling stories from a religion that I don’t belong to or fully understand. I'm interested in the here and now and using my dance to express what is pertinent to our social and political times…

One interesting thing about them though I found in Veena Talwar Oldenburg’s field work in the 70s (double check dates) where she actually stumbles upon a courtesan community of 30 or so women while doing archival research She asks them about the stereotype of them stealing young girls to become courtesans and they instantly dispel the rumor by telling her their real stories….none were kidnapped, one loved dance so much but couldn’t do it unless she left her Brahmin family and chose a different way of life, but many left abusive husbands or families to find an alternative life.

In my work with the abuse survivor support group, I feel so many women who are emotionally and sometimes physically abusive situations didn’t leave because there’s so much shame involved and they really have many other alternatives within the South Asian society. That is until they find groups like the South Asian Network, or Sahara that can give them a safe woman’s space to see what other women have done.

The courtesan community seems that it offered a different model for women to live that was intertwined with but also in many ways resisting the typical patriarchal model of society. In Oldenburg’s article, it sounds as if they created a woman-centric society that had its own rules. The way she found the courtesans in the first place was because she found translator to work with who said he didn’t have a name, and when she asked why he said it was because he was a boy born into the courtesan community where females are celebrated, are the bread earners, and the inheritors of land. Because he was a boy he was considered worthless. I remember reading an article by ? Srinivasan about the devadasi’s in South India who also had similar powerful roles as the heads of their household and businesswomen. It’s so confusing to me though because the idea of a courtesan is shown in the Bollywood movies as something so tragic rather then powerful, as shameful and something to be hidden, rather then a possible option for a new way of life! And I’m confused too if these women were really selling bodies, or selling their dance, or did it depend on which level of a courtesan you were?

Anyway, I find it fascinating to know that there always have been alternatives, even though it still seems that our lives as South Asian women are still so dictated today in the 20^th century by the expectations of the same patriarchal roles. I have met women in their mid-20s thinking their lives are over because they are divorcing an abusive mate and that no one else will marry them, or a woman who waited 30 years to leave so that her children would be grown up and not have to deal with the divorce. Why is it that we still see such narrow possibilities for ourselves as women? Even I am constantly struggling with feeling some obligation to be solely a mother and homemaker because my husband has a more lucrative job….. (to be continued or to be edited down)

Anjali Freewrite:
Anjali also did a free-write of the experience of feeling silenced and finding expression through dance.
(to be posted later)

In the afternoon, Carole and Sangita came, and we worked more on layering studies through multimedia.

Sandra "past" silhouette + Anjali's "beautiful"
We tried layering Sandra's shadow with Anjali's beautiful cliche.  We also experimented with layering those two with Shyamala speaking her letter in front and Cynthia behind Sandra's shadow video dancing classical kathak, also as a shadow.  (no video documentation)

"I didn't Say A Word" (Anj Abhinaya) layered with "My Silent Cry" (Shy dance)
We put the live feed of Anj's face with "My Silent Cry." Note: the last movement of Shy running with the cloth as wings wasn't possible because of the lack of space so she just runs off.  Password: "silent"


I Didn't Say a Word/My Silent Cry from Cynthia Ling Lee on Vimeo.


Skin
This experiment takes inspiration from Sangita and Cynthia's collaboration "skin."  Carole used 3 projections: "skin," white words projected on Cynthia's body, and a live feed of the words on Cynthia's body operated by a live camera-person.  Perhaps this could include all the live dancers? Also, there was an interesting idea to cross out the words that are on the body with eye liners or markers and then leave the body all marked up with lines afterward.  We were also thinking of replacing the white words, currently from Sumita Chakravarty's text, with the words/phrases from our courtesan cliches.
password "skin"

Skin from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Skin live feed
direct footage from the live feed (from yesterday).
password "skin"

Skin Live Feed from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Retreat Day 3: Story Telling and Multimedia Madness!

Today we each worked on a loose interpretation of an assignment from Hari:
"Based on your research, choose a potent story..." "Solely through abhinaya (using both the face and body), recreate the story you have chosen. The length should be between 3-5 mins. Pay attention to all the juicy details of your story, making sure your depiction is lush, descriptive and colourful."

Shy took a few phrases from Uma's story and put them in her face. Password: "Uma" Note: the video is about 5 minutes, but there is additional black afterwards

My Silent Cry Abhinaya version from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Cyn edited her logomotion improvisations into a short storytelling study with the cloth, also incorporating her courtesan cliche, on "veil." Password: "logomotion" Note: the study is around 5:30 minutes, but there is a bunch of black at the end.

Feedback Questions:
(1) What were the parts that pulled you in?  The parts where you were less interested?
(2) What do you imagine me wearing in this piece?
(3) Thoughts about my various uses of the cloth?  Were there ways that you found effective, ways you wanted to see extended, ways that you didn't like?
(4) Do you like the even, pedestrian, remembering/storytelling quality that predominates?  Would you like to see more variation, for instance by sometimes being in the moment rather than narrating something that happened in the past, or through more emotional/dynamic/movement variation?
(5) Compare this more choreographed version to the improvisations I did yesterday.  Which do you like better?  Are there parts you found more effective in the improvs that you'd like to see brought in here?

Sandra's abhinaya phrase draft. Feedback wanted. Its not where I want it to be. Password "dont"

Babli Abhinaya phrase draft 1 from Sandra Chatterjee on Vimeo.

Anj had already been working on the courtesan padam adapted by Cynthia yesterday, so today she decided to take another idea from it and put it to rhythm. Note, the actual video is only 2min but for some reason vimeo added 17 min of black afterwards! Password: "tell me"



later Ravi joined us and we experimented putting Anj's "I didn't say a word" padam with a live feed (see yesterday's post) with Shyamala's "My Silent Cry" -no video
He helped us brainstorm a soundscore for this piece, as well as for the layered Temple Dancers studies.

We also got his help to add a little from Sandra's cliches to the courtesan cliche phrase - no video


And in the evening we did lots of multimedia trials with Carole:

]wrist[
figure 8 live-feed of Cynthia's wrist poem and Shy improvising based on poem and Anj's wrist.  Password: "writing"

wrist_writing

Teaching Courtesan Cliches
over figure 8 live-feed. Based on Carole feedback will try again later with signs instead of words. Password: "meta"

My Silent Cry Abhinaya in Window
Shy sits upstage on chair facing away from audience. Downstage her face is projected into a frame.
Password: "frame"

My Silent Cry face dance, framed

Skin Experiment: live feed. 
Password: "skin"