Nirguna Creative Process Blog

Dancers Hemantika Mahesh, Donya Sandhu, and Purawai Vyas take part in an improv exercise. This session prompt was for Donya, Hemantika, and Purawai to search for the power of transformation through Lord Shiva. Purawai Vyas to enter as a guide of transformation to connect with Rachana, Hemantika, and Donya.

Dancers (left to right) Purawai Vyas, Rachana Joshi, Natasha Manvi, Donya Sandhu and Nancy Thavaruban in discussion over Nirguna. The dancers have been immersing themselves in the music. After several repetitions of the song, the dancers are discussing the layers that emerged from the process and the individual interpretations of sound and evoked emotions. The collective contemplated what was felt and how that was to be expressed conceptually, visually, and in dynamic movement.

Snapshot of guided improv exercise. Dancers (left to right), Hemantika Maheshkumar, Rachana Joshi and Donya Sandhu are in movement representing a solitary search for the power of transformation through symbols of Lord Shiva. Trying to approach the process organically, the artists reinvent the initial choreography with a guided intention. They explore individual movement vocabulary with this new intention as the guiding task.

Dancers Hemantika Maheshkumar, Donya Sandhu, Purawai Vyas, Nancy Thavaruban, and Natasha Manvi in movement to demonstrate the juxtaposition of chaos and peace. The dancers are guided by the mythological story of Lord Shiva taming the river Ganga in his hair. Everyone then is in discussion of how the exercise felt to them and finding an intention to the movement.

(How do you choreographically convey the difference between unhinged energy that can be seen in destruction and the silence that follows? In an attempt to journey through the two) concepts, the dancers use the story of Shiva tying his locks that represents the river Ganga,to tame the powerful force.

Journal Entry

Reworking a piece can be challenging. As dancers, we are so bound to structure and routines that were once set that it is new for us to break free and explore new territory. This is the struggle and excitement we experienced simultaneously while creating new movement for Nirguna. The familiarity of set patterns and methods of dance creation felt comforting, but we knew we wanted more. A feeling of excitement and something to call our own. To create our own artistic voice is how we attempt to paint this piece. Creating tasks that help us move organically, work harmoniously as a team, and allow the imagination to run wild. At times we fall back to our old patterns and then we remind ourselves that we have to get comfortable with the unfamiliar.

- Kala Collective