Rewired Dance[5.17.09]- 063

Cantor, "Rewired": Outdoor Iterations of a Dance by Parijat Desai

Choreography by Parijat Desai, IDA Artist, Winter 2009

 

This project is an amplification of Parijat Desai's "Rewired," originally a trio fusing two concert forms: Classical Indian Bharata Natyam and Post-modern Dance. Here, it is a triple trio cast of nine dancers. The dance material is fractured, layered, structured in response to the architectural and landscape features of the Cantor Museum and grounds. The Cantor iterations are arranged by Diane Frank.

 

 

Set during her IDA residency Winter Quarter 2009, Desai reconstructed "Rewired" as a complementary project to her IDA choreography. "Rewired" is, in essence, the artifact of Desai's exploration of the kinetic information, the mining that underlies the choreographic processes when creating a fusion form. Desai investigates both the gestural and rhythmic signatures of Southeast Asian forms and the body connectivity and spatial drive of contemporary concert dance, in effect "rewiring" the body to dance the kinetic information of both forms simultaneously. The elaborate and innovative phrases of "Rewired" are the rich result of her investigation.

 

 

Both forms also have a relationship to site-specific outdoor dance -- in temples and courtyards, in landscapes and grounds. The Cantor Arts Center, so varied architecturally and so elegantly landscaped, provides striking environments for the formal permutations that a triple trio allows. Dancers assemble, disperse, and re-assemble throughout the grounds as the afternoon unfolds, allowing museum visitors to do the same.

Done