London, a city today among the most fertile in contemporary dance and in the intersections of body languages and cultures, is where the work of Angika has developed, an Indian dance company founded in 1997 by Mayuri Boonham and Subathra Subramaniam. These two dancers and choreographers trained in Bharata Natyam, which forms the core of all their creations. The gestural vocabulary of their performances does not stray from the rigorous code of the ancient Indian dance, but is reinterpreted through a contemporary approach that connects the work to our time without betraying the traditional technique of the ancient discipline.
As resident choreographers at London’s The Place, a cult venue for monitoring the trends of British dance, Boonham and Subramaniam refined their style at the Bhavan Centre in London under the guidance of Prakash Yadagudde, later developing their innovative vision of Bharata Natyam by collaborating with contemporary musicians such as the edgy MTV-awarded group MIDIval PunditZ, based in New Delhi.
Ether is a female quintet inspired by Indian philosophy, where “Ether” is the principle of movement that pervades the Universe, an energetic and sound flow. Danced to original music composed by MIDIval PunditZ featuring percussion, sitar, flute, shehnai, and voice, Ether is a deeply meditative piece; “a work of absolute clarity,” declared The Observer, a performance in which female figures suggest a seductive contraction between mythological aura and contemporaneity.
Bhakti was judged in 2006 by The Times as “one of the most enjoyable works of dance influenced by Bharata Natyam produced in Britain in recent seasons.” Fifty minutes of performance demonstrate the ability of this Indian group based in London to construct a piece with substantial breadth. It’s a piece that reveals the beauty of a sophisticated dance style rich in details, from foot movements to steps, from hand gestures to facial and eye expressiveness. Bhakti, the authors explain, is an act of devotion (the meaning of the title) regarding the potential for love in humanity.
www.angika.co.uk
