CHENNAI: After teaching kuthu all over Brazil a couple of years ago, dancer Sanjay Jayaraman may be headed to Barcelona this time for a different kind of inter-cultural dance experience. As a piece he helped choreograph along with fellow dancer from the city, Manju Bargavi, has made it to the international list of the Screen Dance Festival 2016 in Barcelona. Titled Acceptance, the video merges freestyle moves and bharatanatyam in an effort to celebrate different cultures.
The festival, which is slated for International Dance Day on April 29, will feature screenings of shortlisted videos from all over the world. And ironically, the director of this video, Ritvick Sharad recalls, “When we shot this last year, it was only supposed to be a part of my final year project at L V Prasad Film & TV Academy!”
The 26-year-old, who has now moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in the film industry, tells us the hardest part for him was the editing process. “We had 350 cuts after two days of shooting, it was pretty insane,” he recalls. Add to that, special effects and a splash of holi colour to play with on the set, and the result was quite spectacular.
For the dancers on the other hand, putting together a five-minute video after five days of intense choreography was a rollercoaster ride. “I think I was possessed for those five days. I did freestyle sections, and Manju did the bharatanatyam. But I did have to learn a little bit for bharatanatyam too in that time frame...it was intense,” Sanjay remembers.
In fact, just to get their shoot angles in sync, the alumnus of the New York Film Academy had no qualms requesting his watchman to shoot short videos of practice sessions on his mobile camera, which he would later send to director Ritvick every morning. It was huge win for the team when they realised that their ‘student project’ will soon be viewed on a world stage. Music for the piece is by a student studying at A R Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory.
Although, if you are automatically assuming the whole team is flying to Barcelona, they candidly admit they’re still on student budgets and so...fingers crossed!