Post Natyam Special Announcement: INTERFACE 2006 in Kolkata, April 18-22

[Post Natyam]

Dear friends, 

We would like to let you know about INTERFACE 2006,  a great festival that our friends from Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop are putting on in Kolkata, India, this month.
Below are the details of the festival.

Best wishes,
Post Natyam

INTERFACE 2006 : The Festival

 

INTERFACE is a non-profit venture by Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop, the only experimental dance ensemble of Eastern India striving to develop an organic and radical idiom of movement

INTERFACE, the INTERnational Festival of Alternative and Contemporary Expressions is a biennial event covering the disciplines of music, theatre, visual arts and fashion and all possible interactions between these disciplines. It is the only international alternative arts event of Eastern India and the only the third in the country. It is being planned as a major event in the cultural calendar of Kolkata with a multitude of national and international performances. Workshops, film screenings and other allied events.

INTERFACE 2006 is happening April 18-22 , at premium venues of Kolkata supported by a range of sponsors. The Festival is a thorough exchange programme between premier artists from India , Japan , Canada , and USA and art lovers and connoisseurs of Kolkata.

INTERFACE attempts to bring into the City of Joy a taste of the tremendous and turbulent experimentation that recreates every urban experience in myriad artistic forms around the world. It encourages a non-mainstream strain of thought, performance and development in every sensitive modern urban individual. It creates a ready platform for the interaction and reinvention of the contemporary arts.

As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations Sapphire initiated the LINK THE ARTS movement in 2002, a drive to bring together the arts in interesting commissioned and impromptu collaborations by bringing together artists of various disciplines through regular meets and discussions. The aim is to bring issues that bother all or more artistes out in the open and in brainstorming sessions exchange ideas, develop solutions, form a large and more meaningful art fraternity, which can provide encouragement and support to budding artistes and which can reach out to educate and create new audiences.

INTERFACE is part of this movement and endeavors to break barriers through the power of contemporary art, art that is relevant, real, sensible and meaningful Art that speaks to all because it is close to their lives, appealing to their senses and a lesson to learn from.

I NTERFACE is here not to create conflicts, not to move away from tradition, not to create divides but bridge the gaps between people, genres, cultures and countries.

Sapphire beckons all to come forward and join hands.

 

  INTERFACE 2006: Participating artistes

Main performances

18^th April: Opening Performance: Anita Ratnam(India )

Anita Ratnam, founder of Arangham Trust, and co-director of The Other Festival, is recognized and honored for her talent and for furthering the international profile of Indian dance, she has been honored with many awards in India, most notably the Nritya Choodamani (1996), Kalaimamani (1998) and the Sankaracharya Award (2001). In the United States she has been given the Mahatma Gandhi Award for Cultural Harmony (1986).

Anita opens INTERFACE 2006 with Tara : Seven Graces � a solo dance-theater performance created in collaboration with Hari Krishnan ( Canada )

The work explores Anita�s signature perspectives on Goddess worship and Indian feminism, through manifestations of the Tibetan Buddhist goddess Tara. This organic piece resonates with the ideas of comparative mythology and feminine archetypes their reflections in contemporary Indian feminism. Interpreted in an original, textured context in collaboration with choreographer Hari Krishnan, the 60-minute minimalistic work uses an eclectic array of movement including Bharatanatyam, Chinese Wu-Shu martial arts, Modern Dance, Tibetan Buddhist liturgical dance and Zen Buddhism.

 

 

19^th April: Main performance: Ananya Dance Theatre ( USA )

Ananya Dance Theatre, founded by Artistic Director Ananya Chatterjea in 1996 in New York is a dance theater company formed of women artists of color endeavoring to create artistic works inspired by feminine history, politics, and experiences all around the world. Diverse South Asian performance traditions are explored in contemporary perspectives in the continuous search for images of strength and beauty in art. Based specifically on the Odissi dance form, aesthetic traditions of Bengal, and practices of street theater created by women�s groups in India , the company seeks to reach and engage diverse peoples. Ananya: based on the Bengali na-anya, �like whom there is no other�

Ananya Chatterjea is an artist and an activist, and Associate professor of Dance at University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Trained in India classical and folk dance traditions along with modern dance techniques and African dance styles, she has performed at important events at Germany, India , Malaysia , Canada, London , Java, Philippines and Singapore .

 

Ananya presents at INTERFACE 2006 - Bandh: a meditation on dreams

A reaction to the growing disappointment and despair among communities of women of color in response to the escalating violence, militarism, and religious fundamentalisms, Bandh seeks to use performance to generate a sense of healing and to highlight women �s desires and dreams for social justice and peace.

 

  19^th April: Main performance: Mezcal Jazz Unit (France)

MEZCAL JAZZ UNIT plays its own creative music, with mixed influences, in phase with the main actual french jazz streams. Here, the word "jazz" has to be understood with the largest signification, meaning: no musical conformism, open mind, integration of other musical streams, adventures...

 

There is a strong Mediterranean feeling of the musicians, along with explorations of traditional melodies, connotations of oriental music, a rocky energy, a sense of humor, and a mix between emotional introspection and a very specific Latin attitude of expression.

 

MEZCAL JAZZ UNIT In   INTERFACE 2006

MEZCAL is a live band and its music is based on pleasure and communion between musicians. The ability to communicate with the public is for this band a priority: as important as technical and musical performances.

The band headed by Emmanuel de Gouvello (bass, composition) lives near Montpellier-South of France , since 1986.

The band has toured France, Austria, Germany , Poland , Czech Republic, Slovaquia , Lithuania , Latvia, Estonia, Bielorussia, Maroco, Azerbaidjan , Hungary, Roumania, Moldavia , Ukrania, Burkina Faso, Vietnam...

 

20^th April: Main performance: Shakti and Vasantamala Dance Company ( Japan )

Born to an eclectic parentage of an Indian father and a Japanese mother, Shakti has grown up with the best of both cultures. While earning an M.A. in Indian Philosophy at Columbia University in New York City, she studied modern dance with Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey and jazz dance with Luigi.

Shakti   presents at   INTERFACE 2006 - The Pillow Book

Shakti�s unique hybrid form of dance blend an array of Eastern dance traditions and yoga with Western jazz and contemporary rock resulting in a exotic effect. She is the coordinator of the Japan Experience which assists and manages Japanese artists abroad. SHAKTI is also the artistic director of The Garage International which is now one of the most prominent venues in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe hosting over 40 different companies globally. Shakti�s unique and mesmerizing performances have tantalized audiences all over the world.  
Based on Sei Shonagon�s poetry and spanning the world of courtesans the piece is a glorious celebration of womanhood. The body of the dancer is a canvas for beautifully painted images by famous Japanese visual artiste Mieko Nishimura conjuring up a demoniac finale of fiery explosive passion. Shakti shall be accompanied at INTERFACE by her mother Vasantamala, the first Japanese student of Uday Shankar, bringing Indian dance to Japan.

 

    21^th April: Main performance: Ileana Citaristi(India

Coming to Indian dance after years of experience in the traditional as well as experimental theatre in Europe , Ileana Citaristi has contributed to the growth of the Odissi and Chhau dance forms as well as to contemporary perspectives on traditional dance forms.

She has given performances in all the major dance festivals in India as well as in Italy, Argentina , Poland , France, Germany. Holland , Denmark , Malaysia , Hong Kong, Japan, USA , Australia and Israel .

 

Ileana has been awarded the prestigious title �Leonide Massine for the art of dance� in Italy in September 1992 and the �Raseshwar� award by the Sur Singar Sansad, Bombay,. In May 1996 she won the �National Award for best choreography� for her dance direction to the Bengali film �Yugant� directed by Aparna Sen. She has conducted a research on the Martial Art of Orissa under the aegis of the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts in 1991 and in 1996 she has been granted a senior Fellowship by the Dept. of Culture, Government of India, for writing a book on Kelucharan Mohapatra�s life.

 

Ileana Citaristi

 presents

Images of Change

at INTERFACE 2006 

 a piece that explores contemporary perspectives on traditional realms of Indian dance

 

21^th April: Main performance: Rae Bowhay and Martin Trudel( Canada )

Dancer/ Choreographer Rae Bowhay and Guitarist/ Compositor Martin Trudel

are the creative force behind SaSASa, a collaboration initiated in Montreal, Canada in 1997.  With similar passions towards flamenco and contemporary music and dance, they�ve been dedicated for almost a decade to the development of very unique, poetic and colorful works. Their wit, emotion, rhythmical drive and flamenco attitude are used within experimental forms to create imaginary folklore.

 

Rae Bowhay also performs regularly with many different artists throughout Canada and has presented her choreography in Los Angeles and Scotland .  She received the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award, offered by The Canada Arts Council, for artistic achievement in 2005.  

SaSASa presents at  INTERFACE 2006 an intimate duo performance between dance and guitar. The duo full of subtle reflections and surprises which shed light on, and explore, their humanity.

  SaSASa also collaborates with Pierre Renaud, senior puppeteer from Montreal to present Romancing on the Moon as the privileged Opening Night Dinner performance for special celebrities and guests of the festival.

 

Participation of the Canadian artists from Montreal, Quebec , has been made possible by financial support from Kala Bharati, given in memory of Robert Duplessis to mark the 25th anniversary of Kala Bharati and Tangente's contribution to the Montreal dance scene.

--
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