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🇮🇳 India /Culture & Society

Bridging Kathak and grief, borne by children in war zones, with the music of SOI

From Hindustan Times · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources New plan
  • Kathak choreographer Aditi Mangaldas and the Symphony Orchestra of India will present “The Absence of PRESENCE,” a work about children affected by war.
  • The NCPA-commissioned production will combine Kathak, contemporary movement, poetry, sculpture, light and an original score by Rushil Ranjan.
  • The project marks the SOI’s first collaboration with an Indian classical dancer.

Can grief be danced? Can an orchestra make absence audible? Aditi Mangaldas is attempting both in *The Absence of PRESENCE*, a new collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra of India about children caught in war.

The production, commissioned by the National Centre for the Performing Arts, will be staged in Mumbai next month. It will bring together Kathak, contemporary movement, poetry, sculpture and light with the SOI’s strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.

The emotions behind ‘TAOP’ are universal. We need to build bridges and widen circles that connect cultures and art forms to be able to dive deep into human emotions.

· Aditi MangaldasMangaldas explains why she does not view the production simply as a fusion of artistic traditions.

Mangaldas, trained by Kumudini Lakhia and Pandit Birju Maharaj, remains rooted in Kathak while pushing against its boundaries. She rejects the label of “fusion” for the work, saying its emotions are universal and that artistic traditions must build bridges without losing their identities.

British composer and multidisciplinary artist Rushil Ranjan created the original score. The SOI has previously collaborated with Indian classical musicians, including the late tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, as well as Niladri Kumar, Rakesh Chaurasia, Hariharan and Shankar Mahadevan. Dance changes that relationship, however, because rhythm is no longer only heard. It is embodied.

The SOI has a fairly substantial history of collaborating with Indian classical musicians, but there is no precedent for collaboration with an Indian classical dancer. The forthcoming Aditi Mangaldas project is therefore significant.

· Khushroo N SuntookThe SOI chairman describes the importance of the orchestra’s first collaboration with an Indian classical dancer.

SOI chairman Khushroo N Suntook called the project significant as the orchestra marks its 20th year. The orchestra has a substantial history of working with Indian classical musicians, he said, but no precedent for collaborating with an Indian classical dancer.

The work takes “absence” as its central idea. Mangaldas describes it through children in war zones, children forced from their homes and children whose laughter has disappeared, leaving what she calls a void “like a black hole, sucking in all”.

Children in war zones. Children driven from their homes. Children whose laughter has disappeared. It is a void, like a black hole, sucking in all

· Aditi MangaldasMangaldas describes the absence at the heart of the production. The supplied text ends before the sentence is completed.
About this summary

Originally published by Hindustan Times. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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