ODISSINOMAD

 

Dearest Family and Friends:

I hope this finds you well in your corner of the world.

I am thrilled to announce my 2019 Spring Tour of   ‘Naari: Honouring the Feminine:’ a collaborative effort between myself and  Pakistani-American poet and author of ‘To Build a Home,’ Hinnah Mian. ‘Naari: Honouring the Feminine,’ layers contemporary poetry with classical Odissi dance, and is a tribute to women in their essence, form and feeling. The performance explores different facets of womanhood through narration and movement. Woman is all-encompassing in her devotion, compassion, vulnerability, strength and power. She is the embodiment and essence of love. NAARI 2019 will feature performances and workshops in various cities throughout Europe. Please message odissidancer76@gmail.com for more information, and please continue to visit odissinomad.com for continued updates regarding the tour. https://youtu.be/q973YO_LUrc

*This tour is dedicated to my Grandmother, Smt. Basanta Kumari Kar, who passed away in Dec. 2018.

With deepest gratitude to my family, my Gurus, co-artistes, friends and well-wishers – their love, guidance, and support  made this production possible. I am truly blessed to have you in my life.

Artistes
Photography: Srikant Panda
Design: Nieves Gonzalez (Gudrid NZ)
Video: Srikant Panda, Sonali Mishra, Hinnah Mian. Radhika Manchanda.

TOUR DATES/DETAILS:

London: April 26-28
Performance: April 26 (Fri.).
*Tickets: https://chatspalace.com/events/naari-honouring-feminine/
Workshop: April 27-28 (Sat.- Sun).
*Contact: surya20@msn.com

Lisbon: April 30 – May 7
Discussion: April 30 (Tue.) “TRANSITIONING TRADITIONS” (With Lajja Sambavanath and Tarika Valli)
*Contact: cultura@comunidadehindu.org
Performance: May 5 (Sun) Companhia de Actores
*Tickets: 919 714 919/ 214 176 255 or cda.reservas@gmail.com
Workshop: May 4 (Sat)
*Contact: Jazzy Studios: +351 21 395 0763 OR  www.jazzy.pt

Madrid: May 9-21
Workshop 1 (Intro): May 11 (Thur.)
Workshop 2: May 18-19 (Sat-Sun)
Performance: May 17 (Fri.) Centro Mandala
*Contact: 638883685 OR odissiekada@gmail.com

Vienna: April 25
Workshop: April 25 (Sat.)
*Contact: indianperformingartssk@gmail.com or chauhanrashee194@gmail.com

Berlin: April 27
Performance: April 20 (Mon.). Tagore Centre (Indian Embassy)
*Contact: 00 49 30 25795401/02 OR cul.berlin@mea.gov.in

Bremen: April 29 – 30 
Performance 1: April 29 (Wed.)
Performance 2: April 30 (Thur.)
*Contact – TBA

 

After another extended break from odissinomad, I am happy to return to blogosphere – almost a lifetime of changes have happened in the past year, both professionally and personally. 

I am currently in my ‘safe space’ after nearly 3 months of touring, enjoying a bit of downtime which I have rarely have, but a welcome opportunity to rest and reboot.  Continue reading “Protocol” →

 

Hello Lovely Readers: Odissi Nomad (yours truly) went on a rather extended sabbatical, hence the long gap. The last few weeks/months have been intense both professionally and personally. As life would have it, circumstances have forced me to take a step back for once, out of a momentum that had been going fairly strong since the beginning of the year. Of late, recent events have made me think quite long and hard about the dance world and the dance field in general. Continue reading “Value Systems: A Quiet Rant” →

Hello Readers! Apologies for the delay – I was enjoying a small bit of downtime before leaving again tomorrow for Murcia (in Spain) for the last leg of my tour. The last several weeks have been a blur – minus the few days here and there, it has been a whirlwind of activity but in that very wonderful way of opening many new ideas and possibilities. It is hard to believe that by this time next week I will be back in India and back to my life there.

Continue reading “Long-Distance Learning” →

Hello Everyone! Unfortunately as I have been traveling a lot I have not been able to update here as regularly as I would have liked to. The first 10 days of my tour were a bit hectic – travel, teaching and performing left me with little time to think, let alone write. At the moment am enjoying a bit of downtime before leaving for the next workshop in Barcelona.

Continue reading “Odissi Travel” →

Of late, I have been thinking a lot about the implications of cultural values in the in the teaching/learning process. When I started my dance training in the US/Canada, the system under which I learned was more or less on the conservative side, I imagine it was [somewhat] modeled after the Guru-Shishya parampara system in India. The expected behaviors were made clear from the very beginning: how we addressed our teachers/Gurus, how we treated the physical dance space, our dress, attitudes, etc. The learning expanded beyond the classroom and permeated into our day-to-day lives. Even from a young age we had to learn to develop the necessary discipline to incorporate dance into our daily activities. Our teachers/Gurus had a much larger role in our lives than just learning movements in a classroom. When I began traveling to India, transitioning into that system was not that difficult since that grounding had been established from early on. Despite having been born and raised outside of India, I never questioned the system under which I learned, rather I rationalized it as part of the process of the classical arts and accepted it as the way, really the only way to imbibe the essence of the art form. I learned what I was taught and left it to my teachers to determine what I would learn and when. I completely surrendered to this system with full faith.

Continue reading “Negotiating Values” →