Aditi Mangaldas: 'If there is no hope, there is no life'

The danseuse’s showcase for the Indian Dancers for Gaza’s Children in 2024 laid the foundation for the concept. PICS COURTESY/NCPA

There is a moment when the quiet silence amid the conversation goes from being a formality to a contemplation. "I am sorry I get emotional," admits Aditi Mangaldas, as she pauses between the conversation with this writer at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) during the announcement of the show. It was the talk of the atrocities visited upon children by war across the globe, in particular the Gaza Genocide that made us all so.

"We have not lived in this world before. A child being brutalised is not a statistic," the veteran says. Out of this bleakness emerges the artiste's response - The Absence of Presence, a landmark cross-cultural collaboration presented by the Aditi Mangaldas Dance Company and The Drishtikon Dance Foundation that opens at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre on October 31.

Mangaldas reveals that the production will also utilise stage design as a dramatic element to highlight the destruction and chaos of war

Dance and emote

While Mangaldas has been in talks for years, it was an emotional moment to have this project commissioned by the NCPA. "The subject is necessary, contemporary, and artistically acceptable," chairman Khushroo Suntook sums up aptly. The seeds though, were laid in 2024, when Mangaldas choreographed a piece for Indian Dancers for Gaza's Children. "It was Weeping Red! designed around Sudeep Sen's poem Gaza and the late Rifat Alareer's work," she reveals.

Aditi Mangaldas in a moment from a rehearsal workshop for the production

The emotions pushed her to have a conversation with composer Rushil Ranjan, associate artiste at the Royal Albert Hall, London. "The central question in responding to Aditi's concept was how to sustain that grief while leaving room for other feelings. Tenderness, memory and joy make the loss more palpable," admits Ranjan, responding to an e-mail. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) came on board the collaboration to hand Ranjan keys to a well-equipped arsenal of over 40 musicians.

Breaking genres

Rushil Ranjan

"I hate the word ‘fusion'," Mangaldas admits during the interaction, adding, "That's why Rushil had to be the bridge. We needed someone who'd understand both, without diluting either." Ranjan explains, "The solo voices are central, and there is a lot of cello writing. The orchestra carries both the emotional experience and the world surrounding it: conflict, machinery, violence." The duo went back and forth for months over the music and movement coordination.

Language of movement

This symphony of movement and music is lent visual grammar by designer Manish Kansara, and lighting designer Ryan Stafford. Mangaldas promises a visual experience that is unlike any other.

At the heart of it all is the danseuse's choreography. The 66-year-old brings her deep understanding of emotive grace and movement to the contemporary narrative. "It is heartbreaking, and heart wrenching," she says. Ranjan shares that the toughest part was ‘finding a convincing place for hope'.

We don't doubt it. "The work is about the absence inspired by the genocide in Gaza, but broadened out to children around the world. Yet, in the middle of this destruction, you see children playing basketball, on slides, learning to dance and play the violin. If there is no hope, there is no life," she sums up. Touché.

ON October 31 and November 1; 6 pm
AT NCPA, Nariman Point.
LOG ON TO ncpamumbai.com; in.bookmyshow.com
ENTRY Rs 450 onwards (members); Rs 500 onwards (non-members)