Celebrated Indian dance talent who’ve set the global stage alight, will return to their homeland for a one-of-a-kind contemporary showcase
Performers from the Indian Youth Dance Company in rehearsal. PICS COURTESY/PIA SUTARIA
Dance is a pursuit for rich kids, not people like us,” dancer and choreographer Manish Chauhan recalls his mother’s advice to her starry-eyed teenage son. The dancer who once wore plastic bags on his head so he could pull off headspins while training on the hard floors of Koparkhairane railway station went on to prove his mother wrong. In 2020, the ‘rich kids’ tuned into Yeh Ballet (2020), a Netflix special based on Chauhan’s journey from Vashi to the most prestigious dance companies in New York.
“But she still hasn’t seen me perform live,” he rues. That’s set to change this weekend when the artiste’s parents settle into their seats, and the curtains rise at Origins. Curated and directed by ballet dancer and educator Pia Sutaria, and presented by INT Aditya Birla Center for Performing Arts, the showcase will spotlight exceptional homegrown talents including Sanjukta Sinha, Manish Chauhan, Aishwarya Raut, Neeraj Lohani, Kunaal Sangtani, Achintya Bose, and young faces from Sutaria’s Indian Youth Dance Company (IYDC). “These artistes have garnered international acclaim. Now, they are itching for a reason to come back home,” Sutaria says.
Manish Chauhan
From learning ballet in tandem with her sister, actor Tara Sutaria in South Mumbai under the late ballet pioneer Tushna Dallas, to paving her way to the Royal Academy of Dance in London to “learn how to teach” at the age of 21, Sutaria is now the mentor she wished she had, to students at the IYDC. “Ballet in India is still tough to crack. Finding the right venues, bagging stage time and running a company is exhausting,” she admits. In an Indo-American collaboration, students of the Academy will present a performance inspired by American choreographer Paul Taylor’s iconic work, Changes.
Aishwarya Raut
While Western classical and contemporary dance forms might feel foreign to some, this homecoming might be the best time to explore them in familiar light. Chauhan’s performance choreographed by Igal Perry, for instance, is set to Raj Kapoor- starrer chartbuster Mera Joota Hai Japani. “Igal had heard it and it stayed with him. Funnily, he never let me reveal the meaning behind the lyrics. He wanted to choreograph it on intuition,” Chauhan reveals. Using a chair as a central prop, the performance explores themes of identity, belonging, and freedom. “Come to think of it, the song perfectly encapsulates my life,” Chauhan quips.
Pia Sutaria trains her students
If there’s one thing that strings the diverse line-up together, it’s the early realisations of their true calling — for Sutaria on her first day at ballet class in SoBo, for Chauhan in Koparkhairane and for Kathak exponent Sanjukta Sinha in Lucknow, the birth place of one of the three Kathak Gharanas. “I was born into a Bengali family. Art was inevitable,” she shares. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar winner will present Incede, a tale of love and longing set to a technical Kathak piece. “I might be the odd one out at a contemporary showcase, but I like taking risks. I’m looking forward to meeting artistes with diverse outlooks,” she says.
Sanjukta Sinha
Sinha should look forward to meeting Charni Road-born, UK-based dancer Aishwarya Raut. “I joined Kathak classes for a while on my mother’s insistence, you know? It was a bit too slow and structured to contain a hyperactive kid like me. I was the kind who would dance around the house,” Raut reveals. After changing tracks to Shiamak Davar’s Bollywood jazz classes at the age of eight, and performing with leading UK-based companies, Raut will return to a Mumbai stage after 11 years this Friday.
Raut’s visit coincides serendipitously with the beauty and chaos of Mumbai’s rains — the same sights that inspired her upcoming performance of an excerpt from What About The Rain? “The performance aims to remind us of the sense of interconnectedness. The digital lives we lead today have distanced us from nature, and those around us. I remember how the rains brought people together when I was growing up. Schools would be called off at least once every monsoon, which meant we got to slurp on bowls of piping hot Maggi noodles together at home. I’m looking forward to revisiting these memories,” Raut shares. This year, we assure her, the city seems to have taken her wish too seriously.
ON July 18; 7.45 pm
AT NCPA, Nariman Point.
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