December 8, 2002 at 11.00 am

"Samavesham - Gender transformation in South Indian Performing Arts"

Session I
New Directions: Bharathanatyam, Navtej Singh Johar

Navtej Singh Johar is primarily a Bharatanatyam exponent and a choreographer, whose work is unique in that it freely traverses between the traditional and the avant-garde. Johar trained in Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra, Chennai, and has worked with several prominent choreographers and composers from all over the world, including Bill T. Jones, Chandralekha, Leela Samson, Shubha Mudgal, Peter Sparling, Yoshiko Chuma, Justin McCarthy and Muzaffar Ali. A recipient of the Times of India Fellowship, 1995, and the Charles Wallace Fellowship, 1999, he is Artistic Director at Studio Abhyas, New Delhi, where he teaches dance and yoga and makes collaborative work with dancers, actors, writers and artists.

Meenakshi is based as well as inspired by the famous Dikshitar kriti, "Meenakshi Memudam Dehi," in Poorvikalyani ragam. The piece is visually textured in its interpretation of the fish-eyed goddess, it attempts to find a lyricism that takes on an inner-search and to disconnect from the ordinary, thereby allowing for the mysterious, feminine to unfold .

On Samavesham:
Particularly in the case of Meenakshi, it is the feminine that is being unfolded, which should in no way be mistaken for impersonation. Personally, as a performer it is my job to cross boundaries of given categories, I must depart from my "person" to be the "character." In Meenakshi, I do not attempt to play the goddess, but it is her inner fluid and mysterious nature, which is intrinsically feminine that draws me out of myself and into an experience that is alien but at the same time deeply abiding and familiar.