BENGALURU: When it comes to expressing one’s emotions or searching for answers to what makes us who we are, dance is one of those art forms that can be seen as one’s salvation. The beauty of dance forms, especially classical dance forms, lies in the fact that it’s a language that is not bound by words.
Aayana Dance Company is attempting to ask some profound questions on life with their choreography yellige which is about answering the question of ‘Where to, Where from?’ The show, which is part of the 19th Drishti National Dance Festival, in association with the Ministry of Culture, will be happening on January 20 at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
Krishna Manognya Balaraju, the director of the choreography shares that the word yellige holds sentimental value for the whole team. “We use yellige to describe the feeling when we were satisfied with life or even when we ask ourselves, rhetorically, where we have come from and where do we want to go. It’s just like one of those things like a reckoning that we used to have from time to time,” he explains.
When Anuradha Vikranth, the festival director, invited the dance company to the festival, the concept had been brewing in their minds for a while already. The festival gave the team a chance to conceptualise it. “This kind of allowed us to finally work on this stuff and gave us a chance to talk about themes and concepts that were close to our heart,” says Balaraju.
As admirers of cinema as a medium, many of their works have a cinematic touch. “When you watch a frame of a movie or a television series, a lot goes behind it and we have always been a fan of the process of recreating that effect. Hundreds of people are involved and hours of effort are put to make that one frame that goes off in a second. I think in a way we’ve always tried to replicate a cinematic process because we believe that God is in the details,” says Balaraju.
The most common problem that artistes face is finalising the various options they have. Balaraju likes to keep it simple by sticking to basic questions of why, where, how, what, and when. “If we have an answer to those questions, most of the answers are already available. Then it is simply a matter of aesthetics because we’re putting it together in a way that makes the most sense to us. We don’t usually follow a traditional format and go with our hearts,” says Balaraju.
(Tickets priced at Rs 300 onwards, available on BookMyShow)
As part of 19th Drishti Dance festival, Aayana Dance Company is showcasing their choreography Yellige, asking poignant questions about life