CPI 2021
Indian Cohort Film Screening
20 Feb 2022, 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Online
All participating filmmakers were selected for an online training course on screendance, which was a Cultural Partnership Initiative (CPI) supported by the ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea along with SIDance, S Korea; the Korea Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE); and Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, India.
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Lalit Khatana & Rekha Rani
Lalit Khatana is a Delhi-based choreographer, performer and teacher. Lalit graduated from the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance's (SEAD) International Choreographic Exchange (ICE) programme in 2013. Lalit's dance career includes a memorable stint with Attakkalari and working as an assistant choreographer for the Hindi movies, Haider and Rangoon. He is currently working with Xportart Dance Company, Norway; Mandeep Raikhy, India; and is a guest contemporary dance teacher at the National School of Drama.
Rekha Rani is a performing artist, movement practitioner, and choreographer. She has been learning, creating, and researching possibilities in the ecology of performing and interdisciplinary arts for more than a decade. She is currently a core member of India Dans Theater where she is honing her pedagogic and creative skills with the school and community.
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Stinking Legacy (5:10 mins)
A visual and choreographic response to rag pickers who spend almost all of their lives living in a dump yard. Illiterate, poor and generally belonging to rural migrant families, it is poverty that pushes both adults and children into this hazardous work. The children particularly are exposed to unimaginable violence, abuse, and dangers. But they are ultimately people who are trying to earn a livelihood with dignity and so deserve to be treated with the same respect and equality like the rest of us.
Credits
Concept: Lalit Khatana
Direction: Lalit Khatana & Rekha Rani
Performers : Inderjot Singh, Rekha Rani, Lalit Khatana
Camera: Dilip Choudhri
Music : Rasmus Nordholt-frieling (Germany)
Maithri Rao & Nidhi Dongre
Maithri Rao is a Bharatanatyam dancer who learnt the dance form from gurus Rohini Ananth, Badari Divya Bhushan, Anjana Bhushan and Minal Prabhu. She learnt contemporary, Kalaripayattu and Chhau as a student of Attakkalari's diploma in movement arts. Maithri is the founder of Shivansh School of Arts. She was part of Vishwa Kiran Nambi’s dance short film, The Kitchen. She recently choreographed her first dance film, My First Chair, which has been selected for six international film festivals.
Nidhie Dongre likes to call herself an experimental artist. She is trained in Bharatanatyam, contemporary dance, physical theatre and Kalaripayattu. She is a teacher with Nrityangan Academy of Fine Arts, Mumbai and a practicing movement therapist. Nidhie nurses the dream of creating an experimental space and residency named Arth. She believes that body movement and dance are strong mediums for storytelling and is keenly exploring the dance film genre in India.
Restive (4:51mins)
Restive was inspired by the filmmakers’ experiences during the pandemic, when the life that we knew went for a toss. The experience of feeling lost and then being found was something we all went through. Maithri and Nidhi have used movement vocabulary inspired by Bharatanatyam and contemporary dance to convey the story.
Credits
Concept and choreography: Nidhie Dongre and Maithri Rao
Performers: Maithri Rao and Nidhie Dongre
Music: Bhayanaka (Fearful) by Bikram Ghosh, Cold out there by Jon Hopkins, Ninaad (raag Hamsadhwani) by Ujwal Nagar
Cinematography: Bharath Vishwakarma and Nikul Gala
Mayuri Upadhya
The artistic director and co-founder of Nritarutya, one of India's leading dance companies. Her visually-rich and thought-provoking productions have won popular and critical acclaim making her one of the most-sought after choreographers in the country today. She strives to create innovative, visceral and ethereal experiences that widen the perceptions of dance.
FIGHT | FLIGHT (3 mins)
A film with two parts. FIGHT addresses the inherent battle that goes on within us between the body and mind. On one end, our body is an instrument of the mind looking within. On the other, it is bound by external perceptions and circumstances that trap it in fear. FIGHT exhorts its viewers to break free of these traps and find the wind beneath our wings. Mayuri describes FLIGHT as a figment of her imagination born out her learnings from the CPI screendance workshop.
Credits
Story, art and direction: Mayuri Upadhya
Cinematography: Sammy Adams
Dance artiste: Nidhi Chauhan
Music: Tilt the End by GYerro
Production: Mahendra Middi
Location: Nritarutya Dance Studio
Papia Chakraborty
Papia Chakraborty holds a diploma in Contemporary Academic Dance and Movement In Art from Rhythmosaic School and Dance Institute, Kolkata where she received training in ballet, jazz and contemporary dance. Studying and working with dancers like Nathaniel Parchment, Navala Niku Chaudhari, Vittoria De Ferrari Sapetto, Yael Cibulski, and Narendra Patil, she believes, has helped enhance her movement language.
Metamorphosis (9 mins)
Metamorphosis (9 mins) is a film that questions the basis of one's identity. While society's standards and one's personal beliefs may have shaped it, all it takes is deep personal loss to redefine one’s sense of self. In the film, the choreographer uses energetic movements and monochromatic imagery to depict that constant tug between our illusory and real selves.
Prashant More
Prashant More began his dance career as a B-boy and hip-hop dancer. A graduate of Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, he was also part of the Attakkalari Dance Company for a while. An independent artist since 2014, he has toured and performed in Asia and Europe. He is currently busy with his movement research project Breaking Points, which enables movers to deconstruct their current movement vocabulary and experiment further.
Romance (4:26 mins)
Romance directed by Prashant More, attempts to visually encapsulate the emotions that romance evokes: mystery, excitement and a need for isolation from everyday life.
Credits
Direction and editing: Prashant More
Dancers: Daniela Londono, Katia Dankova, Patricia Morillas Martinez, Purnendra Mishram and Shikhar Matolia
Music: Fantasy- Raising Moon; By- Random Mind (Licensed under Creative Commons CCo Public Domain)
Location: Arambol, Goa
Sukanya Ravindhar
Sukanya Ravindhar is a classical Bharatanatyam dancer, teacher and an art administrator. She learnt Bharatanatyam from Padmashri Chitra Visweswaran. She has over 30 years of experience in the art of nattuvangam. She is currently deputy director of Chidambaram Academy of Performing Arts in Chennai. She has done a course called Healing with the Arts, from the University of Florida in her quest to understand the multidimensionality of art and dance.
The Endless Cycle (4:01)
The Endless Cycle was the creative outcome of life post COVID-19. We had all suffered loss and sorrow. I personally was in an unstable space, questioning everything and trying to find a purpose to my existence. My film is a chronicle of my journey from despair to finding hope and tranquility.
Rohee Uberoi, Sonia Soney & Priyanka Lokhande
Rohee Uberoi completed her Diploma course from Attakkalari this year. Until recently, she was training and working at the institute under the banner of Professional Development Program (PDP) where she focused on her performative skills, exploring teaching and creative possibilities and cross-disciplinary scenarios in the dance field. She also holds a Bachelors in Literary and Cultural Studies from FLAME University Pune.
Sonia Soney is a professionally-trained contemporary dancer, choreographer and performing artist. She has a Diploma in Movement Arts from Attakkalari in 2019. As a dancer, she aims to improve the quality of life across the age spectrum through a holistic approach to movement arts and dance. Tackling social issues by creating work that gets people to reflect on is something she is currently focusing on through her work PURPOSE. The project " was selected for the bangaloREsidency-Expandedwhich was funded by Goethe Institut Bangalore. The work was presented first in Weltkunstzimmer, Dusseldorf, Germany and then at the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, India .
Priyanka Lokhande trained in contemporary movement arts, kalaripayattu, ballet and Bharatanatyam through Attakkalari's Diploma in Movement Arts in the year 2019-20. She is currently a part of the institution’s Professional Developmental Program and has performed in their dance works on various platforms.
Reside (3:08 mins)
Reside grapples with ideas of liberation. And the dichotomy that exists in letting go or holding on. When is it good to hold yourself back? When is it good to speak up? Sometimes, it works to put up a tough exterior, but then there are times when you must allow yourself to surrender, to heal.
Credits
Dancers : Rohee Uberoi and Priyanka Lokhande
Choreography: Collaborative and site specific
Direction: Sonia Soney , Rohee Uberoi and Priyanka Lokhande (for the collaborative work)
Videographer: Sonia Soney
Tech Support: Devansh Gandhi
Location: Shoonya Terrace and Rangamandala, Attakkalari
Editing: Rohee Uberoi
Music: Harmony and Forgotten by Alan Špiljak; Fantasy and Denouement and Alsace by Podington Bear;
Voice over : Sonia Soney
Costumes: Priyanka Lokhande