Attakalari India Biennial explores new meaning in movement

The 10th edition of the Attakkalari India Biennial showed how dancers can explore space, time and emotion

“It’s Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts. If you say dance, people tend to have pre-conceived ideas, that there may be anklets, make-up and costume; for some others, it could mean tutu or ballet. I wanted to put movement at the centre,” says Jayachandran Palazhy, founder and artistic director of the institution.

Be it ‘Purushartha’, where they collaborate with Kunihiko Matsuo, music director and digital artiste from Japan, or ‘Chronotopia’, inspired by a story from Silappadikaram, Attakkalari’s dance productions search for a new syntax.

The performers here are thinking artistes who want to create art and not those who are only aspiring to perfect technique. Take, for instance, the centre’s latest production, ‘Sthavara-Jangama’, which premiered at the recently concluded 10th Attakkalari India Biennial in Bengaluru. It combined multimedia screenings with live performers who depicted the treks of the migrant labourers during the pandemic. The production brought together minds that resonate with modern sensibilities, and bodies that express instinctively and imaginatively.