UK-based contemporary Kathak dancer Akram Khan is set to premiere his latest production, Torobaka, in Mumbai, in a performance with Spanish flamenco dancer Israel Galvan.
Khan said, “We are playing with the idea of the absurd. We constantly shift roles, alternate between masculine and feminine energy. I am a dancer, but I create music with my anklets; Galvan is a dancer, but he creates music with his flamenco shoes.”
Torobaka is being staged on October 8, as part of the Nakshatra Dance Festival at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).
The Nakshatra festival will also feature a workshop by Mohiniattam exponent Kanak Rele on the Ashta Nayikas, the eight archetypes of the Indian heroine as classified in the Natya Shastra, an ancient Indian treatise on the performing arts. There will also be a Thang Ta and Pung Cholom presentation by the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipuri Dance Academy, an acrobatic performance featuring the Manipuri drum and martial arts by male dancers from Imphal.
Another highlight of the festival is the Nritya Darshan, a dance piece performed by Padma Bhushan awardees VP and Shanta Dhananjayan and their troupe, Bharata Kalanjali.
{{/usCountry}}Another highlight of the festival is the Nritya Darshan, a dance piece performed by Padma Bhushan awardees VP and Shanta Dhananjayan and their troupe, Bharata Kalanjali.
{{/usCountry}}The performances have all been chosen in order to represent the entire spectrum of Indian classical dance today, said Swapnokalpa Dasgupta, the head of dance programming at the NCPA.
WHAT: Nakshatra dance festival
WHERE: NCPA, Nariman Point
WHEN: October 3 to 11
COST: Ticket prices start at Rs 400
URL: ncpamumbai.com