What if somebody was not allowed to make eye-contact, take up any space or even straighten their spine? Maybe they were just given adjectives instead of a name. Sometimes, that somebody is an edible, a doll, a fetish, a savage, a caricature but never a person. Somebody gets mocked and humiliated. Somebody is never seen as they would like to be seen but instead how others would like to watch them.
You are here to watch somebody, but you do not pity them. Someone wants to educate them, someone wants to develop them, and someone wants to convert them. Someone wants to clean them, someone wants to assault them, and someone wants to enslave them. You sit and watch somebody erode. You watch somebody get played and harassed. You watch somebody's autonomy removed from their physical body.
Somebody is here in person.
Ready to display and exhibit her exotic body.
To dance to your tunes, your wishes and crush her dreams.
She is the exhibit.
She is the artist.
She is the specimen.
She is the entertainment.
From the wild forests, the tall mountains
And the never-ending rivers of Arunachal Pradesh, born in the Valley of Dibang
river.
The Chinky Express comes to town.
Only for your eyes.
Deviant Octopus
Project by:
Jasmine Yadav (New Delhi)
Credits:
Jasmine Yadav (Performance and Choreography)
Surbhi Mittal (Sound Design)
Mandeep Raikhy (Artistic Collaborator)
Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Award (PECDA) 2024
The work is supported by Prakriti Foundation and was developed at Khuli Khirkee.
Every posture, movement, and touch is a question posed by the body. This piece explores a transformation - as the dancer devotes herself to desire and appetite. The work involves transforming into someone who is part human, part creature, part monster. This creature is at times spread out, at times crooked, bent, curled inside, and always found shapeshifting.
A body which isn't able to fit into any one standard or label. What does it mean to devote oneself to this constant becoming and unbecoming? The work explores various meanings and associations of desire as a practice, and in particular looks at how female desire, which is often censored/policed, finds manifestations through movement.
The dancer surrenders herself to a raw urgency, questioning decency and censorship. The dancer does this through a movement vocabulary found with her clothing which involves dressing, undressing. Hiding some parts and revealing some. In this hide and seek the desire is to reveal something raw, unashamed and alive.
Uninhabited Island
Project by:
Jaewoo Jung (South Korea)
Loneliness is intrinsic to the human experience, often accompanied by fear and pain. A person who is not lonely is someone who has found the ability to connect and live harmoniously with others. In this performance, the artist grapples with questions about how they will shape their life and the kind of person they aim to become.
In this piece, Jaewoo uses his incredible physicality and sense of humor as his expression. Impressively lithe, his choreography is vigorous and powerful, powered by captivating movement.
