Forum for Composition and Choreography.
We originally devised this program to enable dancers to create and show pieces. We would book studio spaces and rent a hall and invite an audience. FO CO CO 3 had mentors come onboard. We would like artists to collaborate, resources permitting, in order to make varied works and compositional material.
Fo CO CO, The First Edition.
Red Dress Waali Ladki was performed by Diya Naidu, at the Alliance Francaise, Bangalore for the first edition of FO CO CO.
Synopsis
The work is a devised movement performance piece, which uses anecdotes of strong female characters, real life narratives and text woven together with guttural physical movement and imagery. Its main focus is on women in urban India with their peculiar situation of being liberated and suppressed at the same time. It highlights the apathetic response of the urban Indian man to the plight of women in this country and stresses upon the process of the “other” that takes place. This goes on to become a chief proponent of the issue we are faced with.
The work investigates the fear we hold as men and women in our bodies, the physicality of rape and of course the general sense of horror this brings about. It confronts the viewer with the sound of bones and flesh hitting the floor juxtaposed with open and displayed sexuality. It weaves together stereotypical images of the victim, the innocent girl, the warrior or activist and the mother or wife – and insists that these are not separate.
The piece was presented at the Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance Awards in 2014. The 12 minute excerpt and received a special mention for performance .
Judges cited, “A compelling performer, gifted with versatile body language and a readiness to take risks re body image. The use of props and costume was inventive and the synergy between sound, movement and image strong.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6HMQxBzFKM
In 2015, Diya was Pro Helvetia’s Artist-in-residence at the Rote Fabrik, Zurich , and worked further on the piece to develop it into a 40 minute show.
Preview YouTube video Red Dress Waali Ladki Diya Naidu
Window Dancing came about because of Lourd Vijay and ISPTD support. We practiced in the Connect Studios for about a month with several choreographers pitching in. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use the shopping windows at the mall, as much as we would have liked to for rehearsals, since they are retail spaces and permissions are hard to get!
However, the evening went off quite well, with a varied audience, who probably didn’t expect to see performers at different places. it would be good to pull off similar events with multiple performers scattered around, at the same time.
Bodywork was a series of movement installations placed outside the studios of Shoonya.
Archana who was presenting Comfort Zone inside the space invited us to create sections, which a bunch of wonderful youngsters did!
Performers: Anjali Nair, Purnendra Meshoram, Shikhar Martolia, Vijay Benkalmath, Jyotsna Rao, Atul Kumar, Shruthi Shine, Anand Dhanakoti.
Video by Virginia.
Bone wine was presented at a LSHVA presentation at Shoonya. We had rehearsed sections at a dance studio in Frazer Town, run by RATC, Prithvi, Ree and Jeevitha, Jive teachers, hosted us during the day times when the studios were free from their regular classes. The dancers had come up with the material and I chose the music and order. Swapna got the costumes together and everyone let their hair down. We did another showing at NGMA, and that, as they as that..Bones.. turned to Wine….
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