WHAT’S NEW IN SPRING 2013
Working on projects as diverse as contemporary abhinaya, in-your-face super-heroines, and Bollywood, this March and April Post Natyam Collective members are performing, presenting, and teaching across  the United States and Europe. In Los Angeles, Shyamala and Cynthia are performing “Super Ruwaxi: Origins” as part of East West Players’ EVOKE Festival; they will also travel to Chicago to perform What’s Your Stereotype?, an evening of contemporary Indian dance-theater for the Braiding Rivers Festival at Links Hall. In Salzburg, Cynthia will join Sandra to present and teach workshops for Rapture and Rupture: Love and Emotion in Contemporary Dance at the University of Salzburg; they will also perform together in Munich as part of Integrier-Bar. Sandra will then travel to Los Angeles to present a paper for the CORD/DUC conference, Tactical Bodies: The Choreography of Non-Dancing Subjects.In other news, “Cyber Chat,” Post Natyam’s dance-for-camera video, is showing in Long Beach through the end of March, as part of an exhibition that honors Shyamala as a 2013 Long Beach Artist Fellow. In addition, Sangita’s Global Bollywood Dance Project continues this month and features Neda Sadeghi, a Swedish Bollywood dancer of Iranian origin. |
WHAT’S NEW IN NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2012
| Last month we celebrated the 8th anniversary of the Post Natyam Collective! This November finds Post NatyamCollective members in different parts of the world, furthering their investigation of critical and creative approaches to South Asian dance through academic and body-based research, creative exchange, and teaching. Cynthia leaves Singapore, where she recently concluded a successful collaboration with Maya Dance Theatre, for Kuala Lumpur, where she will participate in Work It!, a think-tank for Asian and European female performing artists whose work revolves around issues of gender and performance. In Europe, Sandra continues her research work on contemporary Indian dance, while in Los Angeles, Shyamala is finishing the TeAda Writing for Performance Series, which she co-facilitated, while continuing teaching yoga and pilates privately and at community colleges.
Also, recently, two co-written articles by Sandra and Cynthia have been published: “Initiate, Transform, Sustain, Reach Out: Post Natyam Collective Members Reflect on Long-Distance Collaboration” is available online in the ejournal www.p-art-icipate.net “Choreographing Coalition in Cyber-Space: Post Natyam’s Politico-Aesthetic Negotiations” in Feminist Media: Participatory Spaces, Networks and Cultural Citizenship, eds. Elke Zobl and Ricarda Düecke. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag: 146–157. An article written by Sandra (in German), “Post-migrantisch? Nomadisch? Hapa? Was für eine Erfahrung …?!” will appear in December 2012 in in Urmila Goel, Jose Punnamparambil und Nisa Punammparambil-Wolf (Hrsg.): InderKinder. Über das Aufwachsen und Leben in Deutschland. Heidelberg: Draupadi Verlag, Dezember 2012.
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Shyamala at the Thacher School, photo by Cynthia Ling Lee
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Cynthia and the Thacher dancers
Cynthia with some of the members of Maya Dance Theatre at the Substation Theatre (from left to right: Yoshi Jacobsen, Shahrin Johry, Cynthia Ling Lee, Melody Tee, and Sheridan Newman).What’s New in September and October 2012
This fall finds Post Natyam Collective members busy with teaching, performing, and artistic projects. Shyamala is one of the teachers in TeAda’s Writing for Performance class, and she is also teaching yoga at West LA College and Pilates at Rio Hondo College. She and Cynthia will be performing at Cynthia’s alma mater, the Thacher School, in Ojai as part of Cynthia’s week-long Anacapa Scholar Residency. Afterwards Cynthia will travel to Singapore to perform and collaborate with Maya Dance Theatre; she will also teach at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and for the Singapore Drama Educators Association, among other organizations. Sandra is returning to Europe after an extended stay in India.
She will be performing at Buchheim Museum near Munich on October 6th, in connection with an exhibition of bronze sculptures by Meera Mukherjee. Sangita continues to work on her Global Bollywood Dance Project (http://bollynatyam.com/map.
Cynthia and Sandra were recently interviewed about Post Natyam Collective’s long-distance creative process by Jazmyne Koch for the blog, Unplugged: An Experiment. Read the interview here: http://unplugged-experiment.
Summary: (click to view details)
Events:
PERFORMANCES
- Ojai, USA. 28 September 2012: Cynthia and Shyamala perform an evening of contemporary Indian dance at the Thacher School.
- Bernried, GERMANY. 6 October 2012. Sandra performs at Buchheim Museum.
- Singapore. 18-19 October 2012. Cynthia performs in CREATIONS 2012: Another Face in the Crowd at the Substation Theatre.
CLASSES
4. Los Angeles, USA. Mondays, Sept 10, 2012 – Nov 17: Shyamala, D’lo, Kristina Wong, Leilani Chan and others will be teachers in TeAda Production’s Writing for Performance class series.
Details:
1. Ojai, USA. 28 September 2012: Cynthia and Shyamala perform an evening of contemporary Indian dance at the Thacher School.
What’s Your Stereotype?Grappling, challenging, and blowing apart cultural stereotypes, this evening of interdisciplinary performance blows open Indian dance tradition with humor, craft, and a critical edge. Created and performed by Cynthia Ling Lee (CdeP ‘98) and Shyamala Moorty of the Post Natyam Collective, What’s Your Stereotype? parodies and personalizes received gender and cultural roles in a thought-provoking mixture of contemporary Indian dance, theater, multimedia, and audience interaction.
FREE ADMISSION
7:30 pm
Milligan Center for the Performing Arts
The Thacher School
5025 Thacher Road Ojai, CA 93023
www.thacher.org
805-646-4377
2. Bernried, GERMANY. 6 October 2012. Sandra performs at Buchheim Museum.
6. Oktober 2012, 17 Uhr
Sandra Chatterjee, dancer and research scholar, Munich and Salzburg
Tanz im Werk von Meera Mukherjee: eine Einführung in indischen klassischen Tanz mit getanzten Beispielen. Sandra Chatterjee ist in dem indischen klassischen Tanzstil Kuchipudi sowie in modernen Tanzsprachen ausgebildet und in der kulturwissenschaftlichen Forschung tätig. Sie ist inzwischen international in beiden Bereichen anerkannt und erfolgreich. Meera Mukherjee hat sich in ihrem Werk dem Tanz vor allem über das Thema »Bauls« (bengalischen Anhängern von mystischem Tanz und Gesang) genähert.http://www.buchheimmuseum.de/
aktuell/ausstellungen/meera- mukherjee.php
3. Singapore. 18-19 October 2012. Cynthia performs in CREATIONS 2012: Another Face in the Crowd at the Substation Theatre.
CREATIONS is Maya Dance Theatre’s platform for choreographers to create new, innovative works for presentation. Cynthia will perform her signature solo, ruddha (rude, huh?) as well as a new duet with Shahrin Johry as part of CREATIONS. Other artists include Max Chen (Singapore) and Shahrin Johry (Singapore)
18 & 19 October 2012, 8pm
The Substation Theatre, 45 Armenian Street Singapore 179936
SGD 25 (Adults) & SGD 20 (Concession)
Tickets available from The Substation Box Office
(boxoffice@substation.org or contact +65 6337 7800)
Info: http://www.mayadancetheatre.org/index.php?page=prod_ current_db CLASSES
4. Los Angeles, USA. Mondays, Sept 10, 2012 – November 17 2012: Shyamala, D’lo, Kristina Wong, Leilani Chan and others will be teachers in TeAda Production’s Writing for Performance class series.
Writing for Performance
Teachers: Shyamala Moorty, Leilani Chan, D’Lo, Kristina Wong, and other guest artists.
Mondays, 7-10pm
September 10 through November 17th
10 sessions
Led by a top-notch line-up of practicing and established performance artists, choreographers, poets and playwrights; this series of classes offer artists a rare opportunity to develop new solo and small ensemble performance works. These classes are a home for artists wanting to test the boundaries of their discipline while experimenting with new ideas. TeAda’s cross-disciplinary performances embrace a fearless commitment to provide artists a space to explore cultural and political issues most relevant to their communities. Participants who present a 10 minute new work in the final class will be eligible to apply for TEADAWORKS Development Lab & Festival 2013.
Late enrollment may still be available, contact: classes@teada.org
What’s New in July and August 2012
This July Cynthia and Sandra went to Taipei to attend the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit, where they performed “Ranri (widow/courtesan)” and gave talks on Post Natyam’s long-distance process. In Taipei Sandra also shared an excerpt from her recent work-in-progress titled UNFINISHED, directed by Aditee Biswas. Before leaving for Taiwan, Sandra performed a new duet“Dialogue without a Title,” a choreographic dialogue with Chris Lechner, in Munich.
In August Shyamala and Cynthia will premiere Subversive Gestures, an evening of work that queers Indian dance, as part of Highways Performance Space’s BEHOLD! Queer Performance Festival. Subversive Gestures features new material from our Un(Epic) Wonder Women project, as well as performances by special invited guests. During August Cynthia and Shyamala will also be in a UCLA Hothouse Residency as part of the Desijam Collective. Cynthia is also excited to have been awarded a 2012 Santa Monica Individual Artist Fellowship to create new work intersecting video technology and Indian dance!
See the trailer go to http://vimeo.com/45490742.
We would also like to announce that Anjali will be going on a sabbatical from Post Natyam. We wish her all the best and thank her for her spirit and creative energy over the years!
PERFORMANCES
- Munich, GERMANY, 12 July 2012: Sandra will perform “Dialogue without a Title,” a choreographic dialogue with Chris Lechner, in Munich.
- Taipei, TAIWAN, 15 July 2012: Cynthia presents “Blogging Choreography,” a talk at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
- Taipei, TAIWAN, 19 July 2012: Sandra performs and excerpt of UNFINISHED at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
- Taipei, TAIWAN, 20 July 2012. Cynthia and Sandra perform “Ranri (widow/courtesan” at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
- Taipei, TAIWAN, 24-25 July 2012: Cynthia and Sandra give a keynote address on Post Natyam’s long-distance process as part of “The Stage: the Dance Technology International Mini-Conference.”
- Los Angeles, CA, USA, 10 August 2012: Cynthia and Shyamala premiere “Subversive Gestures” at Highways Performance Space.
- Los Angeles, CA, USA, 24 August 2012. Cynthia and Shyamala perform work-in-progress with the Desijam Collective for the UCLA Hothouse Residency.
Details:
1. Munich, GERMANY, 12 July 2012: Sandra will perform “Dialogue without a Title,” a choreographic dialogue with Chris Lechner, in Munich.
Sandra of the Post Natyam Collective will perform a duet with Chris Lechner: “Dialogue without a Title” (premiere)
at
Völkerkunde Museum Munich
Ticket: EUR 14/EUR 8 (students)What do the journeys from classical dance to contemporary movement contain?
Two dancers investigate the travels, trajectories, and detours that have lead to their arrival at this time, and this place, for this shared exploration.
Where and how can tow dancers- each engrossed in their own journey- meet?
What questions do that ask themselves and each other?
What do their bodies tell each other? Which corporeal narratives meet in this dialogue?
(performance organised by Indien Institut Munich; research for the piece funded by FWF (Austrian Science Fund), as part of the research project “Traversing the Contemporary (pl.): Choreographic Articulations between European and Indian Dance; with the kind support of the Department of Music- and Dance Studies, University of Salzburg)
2. Taipei, TAIWAN, 15 July 2012: Cynthia presents “Blogging Choreography,” a talk at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
Cynthia presents a Project Dialogue as part of the Global Dance and Children International/World Dance Alliance Dance Summit, entitled “Blogging Choreography: Using the Internet to Collaborate Transnationally.”
In today’s increasingly interconnected world, how do Web 2.0 technologies, social networking and DIY media production redefine the possibilities of choreographic collaboration? Using the working process of the Post Natyam Collective as a case study, we look at how internet tools open up possibilities for cross-border collaboration and artistic coalition. This case study offers a powerful model for how young people can utilize internet and media technologies to create artistic communities, engage in social activism, and express hybrid personal and cultural identities through dance.
1:30-3 pm
Taipei National University of the Arts, Rm C207
http://www.daciwdaintaiwan.org/
3. Taipei, TAIWAN, 19 July 2012: Sandra performs an excerpt of UNFINISHED at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
UNFINISHED (choreography/Performance Sandra Chatterjee, directed by Aditee Biswas)
With selected portraits painted by Sikh-Hungarian artist Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941) as a starting point, UNFINISHED is an interdisciplinary dance-theatre project exploring a nomadic aesthetic, evoked by the experience of “living in translation.” In UNFINISHED, the tensions, distances, gaps, displacements, overlaps and repetitions, which are part of a process of (cultural) translation are played with in order to perform a transnationally mobile female body in its complexity. The excerpt “Bi-Factors” takes inspiration specifically from Amrita Sher-Gil’s self-portraits, culmination in her famous Self-portrait as Tahitian, created in 1934, shortly before her return to India from Paris.
at
daCI/WDA Global Summit
Showcase 3, 19 July 1:30-3 pm
at
Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA)
School of Dance
1 Hsueh-Yuan Road. Peitou. Taipei 112, Taiwan. R.O.C
http://www.daciwdaintaiwan.org/PageFrame.html
4. Taipei, TAIWAN, 20 July 2012: Cynthia and Sandra perform “Ranri (widow/courtesan” at the Global daCi/WDA Dance Summit.
Combining contemporary abhinaya (emotional expression in Indian dance), intimate video projection, poetic text, and haunting electro-Hindustani music, Ranri (widow/courtesan) evokes the story of Rasulanbai, a child widow from the 1960s who resisted abuse by her in-laws by escaping to become a courtesan. Sensual and poignant, the courtesan’s world is unexpectedly revealed as a place of woman-centered power and queer female-female love. Rasulanbai’s story was taken from Oldenburg’s fieldwork on the last remaining courtesan communities of Lucknow, India. Lucknow, famous for its singing and dancing courtesans, was one of the historical centers of North Indian classical music and kathak dance.
July 20, 2012, 1:30 pm
Taipei National University of the Arts, Dance Theatre
http://www.daciwdaintaiwan.org/ 5. Taipei, TAIWAN, 24-25 July 2012: Cynthia and Sandra give a keynote address on Post Natyam’s long-distance process as part of “The Stage: the Dance Technology International Mini-Conference.”
Cynthia and Sandra give an extended keynote address entitled “Blogging Choreography: Post Natyam Collective’s Long Distance Collaborations,” as well as participating in roundtable discussion. In our keynote, we ask the question: how do Web 2.0 technologies, social networking tools, and DIY media production redefine the possibilities of choreography? We look at how internet tools open up possibilities for cross-border collaboration and artistic coalition while also reconfiguring the nature of choreographic process and product. Our presentation unveils Post Natyam’s web-based creative process and shares video of our interdisciplinary art-works, which exist at the intersection of live and digital performing bodies.
This international mini-conference on dancing within and beyond technology also features presentations by interdisciplinary artist Renata Sheppard (Torino, Italy) and of Taiwanese dance artists and technologists, Hsiu-ping Chang (Sun-Shier Dance Theatre), Ming-cheng Lee (Body Expression Dance Theater), Chyi-cheng Lin (Laboratory of Performance Technology, TNUA), and Chieh-hua Hsieh (Anarchy Dance Theatre).
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:
24 July, 10:30 am-12:30 pm: Keynote Address on “Blogging Choreography” by Post Natyam Collective.
24 July, 1:30-3:30 pm: Presentations by Taiwanese dance artists.
25 July, 10:30 am-12:30 pm: Keynote Address by Renata Sheppard.
25 July, 1:30-3:30 pm: Roundtable DiscussionLocation: Studio 7, Dance College, Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA)
Information: http://www.daciwdaintaiwan.org/RelatedActivitiesDTIM.html 6. Los Angeles, CA, USA, 10 August 2012: Cynthia and Shyamala premiere “Subversive Gestures” at Highways Performance Space.
Cynthia Ling Lee and Shyamala Moorty present Subversive Gestures, an evening of interdisciplinary performance that queers Indian dance, where gender-bending super-heroines, deconstructed mudras, and lesbian fantasies of courtesan-ancestors descend upon Highways’ unsuspecting audience. Using queer tactics of parodying and personalizing received legacies of gendered performance, this compelling mixture of contemporary Indian dance, multimedia, and theater features special invited guests and audience interaction. Subversive Gestures is part of Highways’ annual summer Queer Performance Festival – BEHOLD!, which takes place July-August 2012.
August 10, 2012, 8:30 pm
(310) 315-1459
http://highwaysperformance.org/highways/performance/ behold-a-queer-performance- series/post-natyam-collective- subversive-gestures/
7. Los Angeles, CA, USA, 24 August 2012. Cynthia and Shyamala perform work-in-progress with the Desijam Collective for the UCLA Hothouse Residency.
The eighth annual Hothouse Residency gives six Los Angeles-based choreographers and/or body based performance artists creative residency time and opportunities for exchange. The residency culminates in an all day showing of new works by Hothouse artists. The Desijam Collective, which includes contemporary South Asian choreographers Sheetal Gandhi, Anusha Kedhar, Cynthia Ling Lee, Shyamala Moorty, Ulka Mohanty, Meena Murugesan, with video work by Sangita Shresthova, will share their new in-progress, collaborative dance-works as part of this showing.
All Day (exact schedule TBD)
UCLA Glorya Kaufman Hall
www.wac.ucla.edu
What’s New in May and June
| This spring the Post Natyam Collective is excited to be starting our next long-distance creative exploration together, Un(Epic) Wonder Women, combining the larger-than-life world of comic book super-heroines with the quotidian travails of ordinary women. Please join us on our blog to see our first creative assignments and to give feedback on our material-in-progress.
Still from Shyamala’s Un(Epic) Wonder Women Assignment
In other news, this May and June is filled with performances, creative, and scholarly work by Post Natyam members. In Munich, Sandra is performingTagore on Vinyl – Traveling with Thakur. Sandra’s and Cynthia’s co-authored paper about Post Natyam’s intermedia, internet-based collaborations will also be presented at the Canadian Society of Dance Studies conference in Montreal. Sangita is off to New York and Prague for research, teaching, and to give talks about Bollywood dance and transmedia. In Los Angeles, Shyamala is directing three solo performances about mothers, grandmothers and ancestry for TeAda Works 2012,
while in Kansas City, Anjali begins work on her one-woman show, Womb Stories. |
