Shiv Yin: Must-watch mix of Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Tai Chi, and contemporary Chinese dance
Shiv Yin is a first of its kind dance performance featuring Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Tai Chi and contemporary Chinese dance, choreographed and performed by an India-China collective.
It took just one performance of the Beijing Contemporary Dance Company (BCDC) in Delhi to convince Rukmini Chatterjee, a dancer and choreographer of 27 years' experience, that the future lies in India and China.
"The power of their art forms, the expressions not just of their bodies but of their faces, it was so similar to our own Kathak and Bharatanatyam," recalls Chatterjee, who decided to travel to China to see what would happen when two ancient art forms are brought together.
The result is Shiv Yin, a first of its kind dance performance featuring Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Tai Chi and contemporary Chinese dance, choreographed and performed by an India-China collective, including Chatterjee, Chinese choreographer Teng Aimin, Kathak dancer Kantika Mishra, Bharatanatyam dancer Souraja Tagore and dancers from the BCDC.
Shiv Yin debuted to a curious Beijing audience in November. Chatterjee is pleased with the experiment, but says this is just the first step. "What I'd like to do in my own small way is sow the seeds of understanding and help foster closeness when it comes to creativity between India and China," she says. "This is a beautiful love story that traverses the emotions of love, anger, jealousy and ultimate union, through a vibrant interpretation of classical Indian and contemporary Chinese dance forms."
It explores the concept of male and female, of yin and yang, from the point of view of two traditions, drawing on classical Indian and Chinese poetry as well.
Chatterjee says her time in Beijing working on the performance was eye-opening. She was impressed by the Chinese desire to learn Indian art forms, and found Chinese dancers in some ways more receptive to new ideas than dancers she has worked with in India and Europe. Despite the gaps in culture and language, there was also a surprising familiarity, she says. "At our first recital of Vedic mantras," she recalls, "there was an immediate connection to Buddhist sutras."
After touring China in November, Shiv Yin will travel to India in December, and will be performed on December 16 and 17 at the Serendipity Festival, Goa; December 19 at Alliance Francaise, Hyderabad; and December 22 at Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi.