Bringing together different cultural art forms is often a very satisfying and enlightening business. If one is lucky or, more importantly, skilful, the result totals more than the sum of the parts. To mix contemporary dance, which is barely one hundred years old, with a style that is over two thousand years old, one would have thought, presents a challenge.
The Hague based choreographer Poernima Gobardhan, a familiar face at the city’s Korzo Theater, uses as a starting point Bharata Natyam, a dance form which originated in Tamil Nadu and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas of Hinduism and Jainism. Originally known as Sadiraattam, and being renamed as late as 1932, it is the oldest classical dance form of the sub-continent.
In her latest work, STRĪ, Ms Gobardhan shares in her words, “an indescribable woman. The only way to represent this woman is to name what the woman is not. It is soundless, numb, formless, odourless, limitless and above all, infinite.”
The piece was in three very distinct parts, each presenting different aspects of the story. In the first part we could have been forgiven for not recognising the Indian connection. On a dimly lit, bare stage with swirling mist and an aggressive, unrelenting soundscape, there was not a sitar or tabla in evidence nor were there, to the untrained eye, many of the familiar Indian dance moves. However, it did forcefully set the scene and established a context of what was to come. In the dim light we rarely caught sight of the dancers’ faces, giving the impression women were being represented as a whole rather than individuals. The dramatic climax had the three dancers lying on top of each other under a single spotlight conjuring up images of a funeral pyre.
For the second part we were in more familiar territory with the soundscape, created by Jorg Schellekens and Vidwan S V Giridhar, now dominated by mridangam drumming and the presence of recognisable foot-stamping and finger gestures reminded us that this was very much an Indian piece. Throughout the performance a lot of back-lighting was used to produce very dramatic silhouette effects. In fact, the lighting by Albert Tulling contributed a great deal to the production, setting mood and ambiance.
Even with the mridangam-based soundscape the middle section was still very assertive, but with the start of the final chapter we realised we would be sailing much calmer waters. In the darkness the dancers had let their hair down and during the silence that ensued they began gently humming and in the resolution to the piece, with them quietly sitting together, a sort of serenity had been achieved. Michael Hasted 18th December 2024
