CHENNAI: Rice is an inseparable part of life for most people in South Asia. But for people living in urban cities, especially the younger generation, the awareness of what goes into the making of rice is just a vague idea, notes Aravinth Kumarasamy, artistic director, of Apsaras Arts Dance Company, Singapore.
He and his team are gearing up to stage their cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary performance ‘ARISI: Rice’ for Chennaiites. Aravinth shares, “The urban audiences in the urban venue don’t know what it takes for rice to be cultivated and harvested. The young kids have probably only seen rice in supermarkets. Rice doesn’t grow overnight. It is a long process and we wanted people to focus on that.”
Combining cultures
‘ARISI: Rice’, directed by Lim How Ngean, a performance maker, dramaturg, and dance researcher, transports the audience through a kaleidoscope of dynamic imagery brought to life by Bharatanatyam dancers. It illustrates several stages of rice farming, with an emphasis on gestural rites and rituals in life where rice is the primary element. “Rice is an important part from birth to death in an Asian resident’s life. In a way, rice is also a factor that unites us. Whether it is Korea, Japan, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Singapore, or India, we all eat rice and have rice cultures. Some traditions like a bride bringing rice to her new home are similar in India and China,” shares Aravinth.
The team will share the stage with their Balinese peers choreographed by Professor I Wayan Dibia collaborating with the company’s resident choreographer, Mohanapriyan Thavarajah. Aravinth says, “Bali also has a very strong rice culture. They have mastered the art of cultivating rice very well. We sit together with the Balinese artists and can perform organically. Even though there were differences, we were able to organically perform.” He adds that Apsaras Arts is collaborating with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra for the first time to enhance the music score composed by Rajkumar Bharathi, and produced and directed by Sai Sharavanam.
Both Indian and Chinese instruments will be performed. Musicians such as D Sathyaprakash, Naveen Iyer, Pratik Srivatsava and other Singapore Chinese Orchestra musicians, Balinese Gamelan and Kcak Choric will perform at the event. Aravinth says, “Almost 190 musicians have contributed to the music track. The behind-the-scenes of the making of music and costume design are available on the YouTube channel Apsaras Arts Dance Company Singapore.”
Apsaras Arts Dance Company has previously done co-productions with ‘Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay of dance-theatre works’, ‘Angkor – An Untold Story’ at Kalaa Utsavam 2012 and ‘Anjaneyam – Hanuman Ramayana’ at Kalaa Utsavam 2017. The production also includes filmmaker K Rajagopal’s stories about former farmer migrants who make a living in developing foreign lands. The concept and artistic direction are done by Aravinth.
Costume design is by Mohanapriyan Thavarajah while lighting is managed by Gyandev Singh and Nandita Krishna contributed as the research advisor. Sharing the excitement of the performance, Aravinth concludes, “We are very happy that we presented this work first in Singapore in November 2022. Almost a year later we are bringing it out of Singapore. This is the first international premiere and we are happy that we are bringing it to Chennai because many artists from the city have worked with us.”