Laal Shaari by Ajaykumar and Amina Khayyam

Form: dance-theatre
Date: 2007

Laal shaari is supported by the arts Council England, Greenwich Dance Agency and Goldsmiths University of London

Public Presentation

• Royal Opera House, London November 2007 (version 2)
• arts depot, London, 22 March 2007 (version 1)
• MAC, Birmingham, 16 March 2007 (version 1)

Project Description
She never wears make up. She never goes out. She never wears her hair down...and she never wears a red shaari...Walk away, walk away now...

Amina Khayyam and Ajaykumar explore theatricalisation of the classical Indian dance form of Kathak to tell this compelling tale of a woman denied the most important thing as young bride - a Laal Shaari (a red dress).

Laal Shaari explores theatricalisation of the classical Indian dance form of Kathak, currently not noted for its dramatic qualities, despite its origins in story telling. This work is a rethinking of Kathak: involving a process of deconstruction of elements of Kathak - such as fast footwork (tatkar), spins (chakkar), and use of bhav (emotions) in its abhinaya (art of expression). For example working with the extremes of slow footwork and stillness; and creating 'corrupted' facial expression and bodily movements, and contrapuntal relationships with the music.

Laal Shaari involves spectator interactive processes,This is developed in conjunction with a scenography that engages with the notion of emptiness as presence. The design involves natural elements with incorporate minimal yet significant decor.

While Laal Shaari is inspired by a story - a woman in Bangladesh, denied the most important thing on her wedding day: a laal shaari - essentially there is no narrative plot but rather a profound engagement with conflicts, moods, and leitmotifs - love, loss, sexuality, humiliation, absence, grief, and betrayal.

Laal Shaari is essentially a particular investigation of dance theatre. It engages with ideas of expressionism that resonate with other forms such as German tanztheater and Butoh. Moreover it interrogates ideas of dance theatre as a total art work - ideas such as those of Laban; of the classical Indian treatise on the arts, the Natya Shastra; of Wagner; and of scenographer Appia. In Laal Shaari the 'story' is told as much in the lighting, in the scenographic composition, as by the dancer; where an emptiness of the performing space may be as vivid as the dancer's presence; where the spectatorship of the audience is also an element in the totality of the narrative experience.

In this sense the Kathak form will also engage with some of Ajaykumar' wider conceptual concerns: particular dynamics between art, science, technology, philosophy, the performing body and nature. Concerning relations between human and a wider environment, Ajaykumar interrogates the contemporary pertinence and evolution of a hypothesis of 'relational being' and 'the being of a space'. Critical in this enquiry is the sculpting of space, questions of spectatorship, issues of experientiality, and dynamics between art and daily life.

Artist Contact Details
ajaykumar@ajaykumar.com
www.ajaykumar.com
turbulence.org/works/iPak   
www.shapes-design.com
turbulence.org/spotlight/ajaykumar/index.ht