A Twist of Taal: a performance on Jan 29, 2010

A Twist of Taal was performed at the South Theater in Colorado College's Cornerstone Arts Center on January 29, 2010.  This concert of artful translations, delicate meldings, and energetic collisions between American and North Indian music and dance traditions featured my collaborations with jazz, world music, and new music composers.  Ranging from meditative lyricism to playful, in-your-face funk, the dance-works were intricately choreographed to live original music and combined the complex rhythms and lyrical arm movements of kathak with western dance’s spatial expansiveness, touch-based interaction, and full-throttle physicality.


A Twist of Taal's vibrant cast of three dancers and five musicians included Shyamala Moorty (dance), Sheetal Gandhi (dance), David Cutler (piano), and the Arohi Ensemble, comprised of Paul Livingstone (sitar), Javad Butah (tabla), Dave Lewis (drums), and Pete Jacobson (cello).

The program featured the following works: 

Note that due to lack of good footage, the videos are from different performances of the same work and thus sometimes feature different performers or musical ensembles.

ruddha (rude, huh?)

choreography, text, and performance: Cynthia Lee

ruddha (rude, huh?) is a series of "false translations" of traditional kathak compositions, where North Indian rhythmic syllables transform into nonsensical English gossip, and idiosyncratic postmodern movement suddenly shifts into classical kathak.  The work careens between classical and street aesthetics to reveal the friction, dialogue, and humorous misunderstandings inherent to cultural collision.  Based on traditional kathak compositions learned from Bandana Sen and Anjani Ambegaokar.

      

Super Power

music composition and performance: David Cutler (piano)

Super Power is an aggressive, rhythmic, virtuosic episode inspired (naturally) by comic strip characters.  It is a battle of epic proportions between a Superhero pianist and an invisible Supervillain.  Will our hero be able to save the day?  Will our nemesis destroy concerts as we know it?  Will the audience be able to survive this trauma?  Stay tuned to find out…

Nine-Patch

choreography: Cynthia Lee

music composition: David Cutler

performance: Cynthia Lee (dance) and David Cutler (piano)

A dancing trickster shape-shifts between different characters as she negotiates a musical world that veers between in-your-face funk, explosive extremes, and poignant gestures.  The idioms of jazz and contemporary kathak intersect in this nine-movement work based on nine traditional kathak compositions learned from Anjani Ambegaokar and Bandana Sen.

I. The Water Mill  II. Bachelor’s Puzzle  III. The Little Giant  IV. Broken Dishes  V. Monkey Wrench  VI. Turkey Tracks  VII. Attic Windows  VIII. Flying Bats  IX. Railroad Crossing

     

I longed to go back to the beginning...

choreography: Cynthia Lee in collaboration with the dancers

music composition: Ravindra Deo and Derrick Spiva, Jr.

dancers: Sheetal Gandhi, Cynthia Lee, Shyamala Moorty

musicians: Javad Butah (tabla) and Pete Jacobson (cello)

A contemporary kathak investigation of sam in North Indian rhythmic tradition.  Sam means "to conjoin or come together," and refers to the moment where the first and last beats of the metrical cycle merge, where musical tension is released and begins again, where union and loss coalesce.  Ranging from minimal lyricism to full-throttle physicality, the movement vocabulary integrates kathak's fluid arm movements and intricate rhythms with western dance's spatial expansiveness and touch-based interaction.

      

Peloraga

music composition: Paul Livingstone

performance: Arohi Ensemble - Paul Livingstone on sitar, Peter Jacobson on cello, David Lewis on drum set and Javad Butah on tabla

Peloraga is a 3 movement ragajazz suite inspired by the counterpoint of Indonesian gamelan and western chamber music but expressed through the phraseology of Indian music and jazz.  Alaap (Mvt 1) is an intimate introduction reflecting shanti rasa (peaceful mood) in a dialogue between the sitar and cello.  Gat (Mvt 2) presents the main themes incorporating multi-layered melodic counterpoint of the ensemble and dynamic rhythmic calculations known as tehai followed by improvised dialogues between the tabla and drum set. Taan (Mvt 3) features solos on the cello and sitar accompanied by ensemble crescendos in a cyclic form. 

not two not one

choreography and performance: Cynthia Lee and Shyamala Moorty

music composition: Paul Livingstone

musicians: Arohi Ensemble

not two not one collides classical kathak with contact improvisation to depict a relationship so intimate that it’s not always clear where one person starts and the other ends. Negotiating kathak’s exacting rhythms while shifting between sensual connectedness, weight-sharing, and rough-and-tumble humor, the piece is inspired by French feminist Luce Irigaray’s writings on female subjectivity, in which the boundaries of the self are fluid, in constant relationship to others, and always changing.  The piece is accompanied by Paul Livingstone’s original Ragajazz music, which enlivens North Indian classical music with the textures of experimental music and rock.