Astad Deboo brings Bulleh Shah to life
December 07, 2016 16:04
Gallery 463 at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, devoted to Mughal art, is redolent of the time it harks back to, with carpets lining the walls -- fawn yellow and faded ketchup red -- and artwork and intricately carved weapons jousting for space with fine brocade, abraded coins, cutlery, pots, plates and more, and throwing soft shadows under 100-plus lights on high.
In it a space was created for the premiere of the specially commissioned Eternal Embrace, a performance by Indian contemporary dancer Astad Deboo and Japanese musician Yukio Tsuji, this past September.
The performance, based on Maati by Sufi poet Hazrat Bulleh Shah, has now come to India.
After its Indian premiere at the Natya Ballet Dance Festival in New Delhi on December 3 -- followed by another in the NCR area on December 4 -- Eternal Embrace will now travel to the National Center for Performing Arts in Mumbai (December 9 and 10), the Alliance Franaise theatre in Chennai (December 14), UB City Mall in Bengaluru (December 16) and at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad (December 18).
The fact that it's been a decade since Deboo created a solo, and that he rarely dances to live music, marks this as a notable creation from the Padma Shri awardee.
With Eternal Embrace, Deboo explores 'the tensions between annihilation and infinity, the ephemeral and the material worlds.'
"We (Tsuji and Deboo) worked in a festival in Spoleto, Italy, on Earth and the environment. Though the context was a bit different (from here), it's also talking about the wars, the massacres," Deboo said, explaining how Bulleh Shah came to inspire him.
Rumi, he felt, had "been done to death," so he consulted his think-tank in Delhi.
"When I need to elaborate on a subject in which my knowledge is limited, I say, tell me, what do you suggest. All these people have seen my work through the decades, seen me grow as an individual," he explained.
And one of them sent him poems of Bulleh Shah from which he chose Maati.
Deboo, who has created his own language of movement with a unique blend of classical and contemporary dance forms, said, "I don't do literal translation (of the poem)... My style is very minimal. When you come to see my performance, you really have to concentrate. You're not coming to be entertained by me. I'm going to push the envelope for you. I won't give too much explanation about the work. I might have a line or the title of the work and I say now it's up to you to make your interpretation."
-- P Rajendran
Image courtesy: Ritam Banerjee
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