With the coronavirus pandemic having wreaked havoc across the globe, cultural events all over the world have been forced to take on digital or semi-digital avatars. This year’s edition of Kalaa Utsavam is no different with the 19th edition of the annual Indian festival of arts combining on-site and digital programmes and events.
While a number of performances will be held on-ground and live-streamed via Facebook, there are three ticketed events that audiences will be able to watch on SISTIC Live from the comfort of their own homes.
The three events are Pallavi through Abstractions by Chowk Productions, Amara – Dancing Stories of Banteay Srei by Apsaras Arts and Pathey Nimidam – 10-minute Tamil plays.
All three events can be accessed on SISTIC Live from 8 pm November 20 to 11.59 pm November 29, 2020 and are each priced at SGD 15.
Pallavi through Abstractions is the final outcome of the Pallavi Series (2016-2018), a three-part choreographic exploration of the grammar of the Odissi dance form. It explores Odissi’s relationship to space, time and stillness, offering lines of increasingly complex movement, placement, stillness, and shifting balances extrapolated from Odissi’s repertoire.
Amara – Dancing Stories of Banteay Srei by Apsaras Arts focuses on Banteay Srei, a unique Cambodian building. It stands out from other ancient Angkorian temples with its petite size, the pink hue of the hard, red sandstone from which it is made, and the intricacy of its exquisitely sculpted wall relief carvings of motifs, figures and scenes from the Hindu Mahabharata and Ramayana epics.
This performance brings to life ancient figures and scenes from the Hindu epics as the yoginis unravel mystical stories of the sacred temple in an exhilarating dance production.
And finally, Pathey Nimidam involves the participation of numerous Tamil and non-Tamil theatre practitioners – directors, playwrights and actors – in the creation of diverse works wrought from mutual respect and cultural exchange.
RDG’s annual Tamil 10-minute play festival was founded in 2013 by festival director and theatre practitioner, Hemang Yadav.
For the first time, the 7th edition of Pathey Nimidam is presented at Kalaa Utsavam – Indian Festival of Arts. Directors of all the 9 plays collaborated with K. Rajagopal, a filmmaker, to film the plays for digital premieres.