BENGALURU: The Shivapriya School of Dance is putting up a show, Hanuman, The Divine that resembles a broadway performance in the city today. This is to celebrate the institute’s 28th anniversary.
The dance and drama production will feature classical and folk dances, along with kalaripayattu and follows the broadway formate of a theatrical performance, except for the fact that the dialogues would be pre-recorded. The ensemble includes 75 dancers.
The performance details the life story of Hanuman, from his birth to the crowning on Ram, following the vanvas.
Artistic director of Shivapriya School of Dance, Dr Sanjay Shantaram says, “We will depict all the important sequences from his life. The production is rich in music and theatre. We have included elements of broadway too”.
About 100 people are involved with the show including 15 to 20 technicians and around 75 dancers. He adds, “This is our most expensive and best production so far. We have done a few dance dramas earlier like the Beauty and the Beast and Matsyakanya. We do a lot of experimental dance dramas and we give a message in every production we do.” The Hanuman, the Divine has a narrator who will discuss the culture, heritage, traditions and teach children to respect elders, he says adding, “No one I know has ever attempted such a production so far, focussing on Hanuman. Artistes have performed on Ram and his life but not Hanuman in particular in such a format. Hanuman is an interesting and lively character with many shades.”
The production will use many visuals. There will be rope tricks to show the flying sequences of the characters. Sanjay who loves to take challenging task says he did not realise the magnitude of the entire production until he started working on the visuals. “The flying sequence cannot be suggestive, so we are using the rope trick. The entire auditorium will be used, not just the stage. ” The entire production was planned and choreographed in 20 days. It will have lots of dialogues and songs simultaneously. “If you see the actual broadway in US, the actors usually speak live.
They stop dancing and deliver their dialogue. But in our show, we have recorded the dialogues and the dancers will have to do lipsync. The motive of this production is to show how classical dance can transform into a broadway format,” adds Sanjay.
A dentist by qualification, Sanjay has also acted in several films. “I have learned martial arts for the fight scenes. I got an opportunity to understand the basics of all art forms. We have used elements of Kalari in the moves of animals in the forest scenes. We will portray malla yuddha in the fight scenes as the use of hands and fists in fights are said to be popular in the monkey clan.”
Hanuman, The Divine will be performed today at ADA Rangamandira on J C Road at 6 pm.