Can a small group of men look like octopuses, tadpoles, fish and tops spinning on their heads all within a span of a few minutes? Can they do all this without losing grace for even a split second? Can they do it in rhythm to music that seems designed flawlessly to match their fast paced actions? And can they vanish in a haze of swords and sticks, handled with such dexterity that one's eyes simply fail to keep pace with the furious movement on stage?
Well, the Dani Pannullo Dance Theatre Company from Spain - performing in the capital at the behest of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and co-opted as a part of the Delhi International Art festival (DIAF) - did all that and more at a tantalising show at Kamani Auditorium on Thursday evening, one of the best I have seen in a while.
Six men with taut bodies and unchanging expressions, dressed in a simple pink-and-black loin cloth, using a mix of martial arts, acrobatics, contemporary dance, rhythmic gymnastics and even break dance, kept the audience riveted for over a hour. The artistes even managed to spin on their heads like tops, not for a moment losing the fluidity that dancers possess. You could see a limb occasionally but the man didn't necessarily seem attached to it. Sometimes the group resurrected itself from a tangle of body parts and stood in perfect composure. Dani Pannullo has to be a genius and his troupe of bone-free, muscle men gifted. The show was a celebration of the male body at the peak of its physical prowess.
This was the second performance I was watching as part of the Delhi International Arts Festival, or DIAF, that opened at the Purana Qila this past week with a show that brought folk dances from Kazakhstan, Turkey and Malaysia before a large mixed audience against the arresting backdrop of Humayun's Darwaza, lit to highlight its beauty and magnificence.
Over the years, Delhi's Purana Qila has become a popular venue for music and dance performances that parallels the best in the world, the drama enhanced by the subtle lighting of its ramparts. Of the three dance performances, the Kazakhstan troupe of charming, remarkably alike women in red-and-black traditional costumes were by far the crowd favourites. They performed a series of perfectly choreographed dance pieces in a flurry of red and black as their costumes matched their moves. The women glided on and off stage, their feet never seeming to actually touch the ground.
I, however, liked the Malaysian Aswara Company's performance - a powerful rendition of Bharatanatyam performed by six artists (four men and two women). The dance - which Indians are used to seeing usually performed solo - was highly energetic, evidence of which could be seen in gleaming bare chests of the four men as the performance progressed.
The festival opened with 18 men sitting against the backdrop of the Darwaza dressed in immaculate white and reciting Vedic chants, praying for the well being of the universe. While it may have been a noble cause and an appropriate start to the event, the audience seemed to get a bit restless as the chants lacked the usual hypnotic, drone-like quality that would lull one into a silence.
DIAF, currently in its eighth edition, promises many more such acts with plays, concerts, dance performances, tribal craft and art exhibitions and puppetry performances lined up. You can check out Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Manjari Kaul at The Instituto Cervantes today evening or an Israeli pop art show at the India Habitat Centre on November 9. There is also a very interesting puppetry performance by Varun Narain on November 4 and 7. The festival ends with a Sufi music performance (including the well known and loved Nizami Brothers) at Kamani Auditorium. Sufi music and qawwali form a large part of the festival's calendar this year with artistes from Pakistan, Israel, Iran and India playing at different venues across the city.
And this year, for those living in Gurgaon, there is no reason to carp since the suburb has more than its share of shows with both the Epicentre and Zorba the Buddha (Ghitorni) as venues. My picks for the coming week include the White Percussion unit from Malaysia, two contemporary dance performances - one from Austria and the other from the US - and several Sufi performances.
An interesting highlight of this edition of DIAF is the two-day North-Eastern cultural carnival with folk dance and music performances from Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, among others. Of these, I have seen and am familiar with the music of the Tetseo sisters from Nagaland whose attractive traditional wear is as appealing as their lilting melodies, even though they are in an unfamiliar language.
Let me end by saying that there is something to interest everyone throughout the next two weeks provided you can tear yourself away from your television set. And if you have any interest in dance, movement and the amazing ability of the human body to dissolve into a graceful mass, wait for Dani Pannullo to show up in Delhi again.
Well, the Dani Pannullo Dance Theatre Company from Spain - performing in the capital at the behest of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and co-opted as a part of the Delhi International Art festival (DIAF) - did all that and more at a tantalising show at Kamani Auditorium on Thursday evening, one of the best I have seen in a while.
Six men with taut bodies and unchanging expressions, dressed in a simple pink-and-black loin cloth, using a mix of martial arts, acrobatics, contemporary dance, rhythmic gymnastics and even break dance, kept the audience riveted for over a hour. The artistes even managed to spin on their heads like tops, not for a moment losing the fluidity that dancers possess. You could see a limb occasionally but the man didn't necessarily seem attached to it. Sometimes the group resurrected itself from a tangle of body parts and stood in perfect composure. Dani Pannullo has to be a genius and his troupe of bone-free, muscle men gifted. The show was a celebration of the male body at the peak of its physical prowess.
This was the second performance I was watching as part of the Delhi International Arts Festival, or DIAF, that opened at the Purana Qila this past week with a show that brought folk dances from Kazakhstan, Turkey and Malaysia before a large mixed audience against the arresting backdrop of Humayun's Darwaza, lit to highlight its beauty and magnificence.
Over the years, Delhi's Purana Qila has become a popular venue for music and dance performances that parallels the best in the world, the drama enhanced by the subtle lighting of its ramparts. Of the three dance performances, the Kazakhstan troupe of charming, remarkably alike women in red-and-black traditional costumes were by far the crowd favourites. They performed a series of perfectly choreographed dance pieces in a flurry of red and black as their costumes matched their moves. The women glided on and off stage, their feet never seeming to actually touch the ground.
I, however, liked the Malaysian Aswara Company's performance - a powerful rendition of Bharatanatyam performed by six artists (four men and two women). The dance - which Indians are used to seeing usually performed solo - was highly energetic, evidence of which could be seen in gleaming bare chests of the four men as the performance progressed.
The festival opened with 18 men sitting against the backdrop of the Darwaza dressed in immaculate white and reciting Vedic chants, praying for the well being of the universe. While it may have been a noble cause and an appropriate start to the event, the audience seemed to get a bit restless as the chants lacked the usual hypnotic, drone-like quality that would lull one into a silence.
DIAF, currently in its eighth edition, promises many more such acts with plays, concerts, dance performances, tribal craft and art exhibitions and puppetry performances lined up. You can check out Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Manjari Kaul at The Instituto Cervantes today evening or an Israeli pop art show at the India Habitat Centre on November 9. There is also a very interesting puppetry performance by Varun Narain on November 4 and 7. The festival ends with a Sufi music performance (including the well known and loved Nizami Brothers) at Kamani Auditorium. Sufi music and qawwali form a large part of the festival's calendar this year with artistes from Pakistan, Israel, Iran and India playing at different venues across the city.
And this year, for those living in Gurgaon, there is no reason to carp since the suburb has more than its share of shows with both the Epicentre and Zorba the Buddha (Ghitorni) as venues. My picks for the coming week include the White Percussion unit from Malaysia, two contemporary dance performances - one from Austria and the other from the US - and several Sufi performances.
An interesting highlight of this edition of DIAF is the two-day North-Eastern cultural carnival with folk dance and music performances from Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Sikkim, among others. Of these, I have seen and am familiar with the music of the Tetseo sisters from Nagaland whose attractive traditional wear is as appealing as their lilting melodies, even though they are in an unfamiliar language.
Let me end by saying that there is something to interest everyone throughout the next two weeks provided you can tear yourself away from your television set. And if you have any interest in dance, movement and the amazing ability of the human body to dissolve into a graceful mass, wait for Dani Pannullo to show up in Delhi again.
The 8th Delhi International Arts Festival is on in New Delhi till November 11, 2014. Visit diaf.in for more details