This is the third recital in a three-part December dance series entitled Purush, focusing on male exponents of Indian classical dance.
Dravya Kaya (dravya denoting ‘object’ and kaya denoting ‘body’) explores the influence of inanimate objects upon the body/mind of the user of those objects. The production explores four archetypical objects and signifiers from the Ramayana: the Lakshman rekha, the kodanda bow, the valakala vastra (the bark garment that Sita wears when leaving for the forest), and the rocks used by the vanarasena to bridge the ocean. The work focuses on the sheer materiality of these objects and their influence on the body, mind and sensibility of their users. Deliberating divorcing them from their implied significance, the work attempts to shift the focus from the superhuman personae to the props of this epic, and the choices that these objects may propose. Dravya Kaya is a stark look at a story that deeply informs the Indian psyche.
A section of this intense dance duet was presented at the Natya Kala Conference, Chennai, in December 2008.
Navtej Singh Johar is a Bharata Natyam dancer and choreographer whose work journeys between the traditional and the contemporary. He trained at Kalakshetra, Chennai, and later under Leela Samson in Delhi, and subsequently studied at the Department of Performance Studies, New York University. He has collaborated with several artists (including Stephen Rush, Shubha Mudgal and Sheeba Chachi, among others) and is regarded as a figure of growing significance on the Indian experimental dance scene.
