After seven years, Chowk will re-stage the critically acclaimed dance work, Pallavi in Time on 24th April 2024. This work sprouts from the Odissi tradition and emerges as a contemporary dance exploration in full bloom.
While Indian classical dance is usually an ornamental and visually stunning experience, Pallavi in Time is visually minimal and focuses on the visceral. Footwork resounds like thunderclaps while bells adorn the feet. Sinews and muscles of the torso move unimpeded by heavy silks. The gaze of the dancer arrests the spectator with the language of presence.
This work explores time on the scale of the cosmic and the infinitesimal. To dance fully immersed in the moment is to dance in infinity. The moment of creation coincides with the moment of dissolution. To dance in unison, every dancer finds her own beat with others. To be timeless is to be contemporary. Dancers come together and fall apart as do drops that assemble and fall as rain.
Calling forth a new dance movement, Chowk draws from the Odissi tradition to find what moves us. To be slow is to expand time. Tradition becomes an endless wellspring of poetic movement. It is unlimited by culture, ethnicity or language. To be still is to let movement pass through you. In silence, we hear the voices of the past and the future.
Described by Stephanie Burridge as “ground- breaking work in the Indian classical canon”, Pallavi in Time is a timeless work of undeniable power that prompts new perspectives into understanding classical dance. Come join chowk, its cross-cultural experimentation with Odissi this April.
Show dates: 4-6 April 2024
Venue: Goodman Arts Centre
Tickets at $30 (20% discount for students with discount code: student20)