Lata Pada Sampradaya Dance Creations presents Shunya & B²
May 30-31 @ Premiere Dance Theatre
By Leandra de Valois-Franklin
According to Lata Pada, internationally-renowned bharatanatyam dancer, teacher, and artistic director of Sampradaya Dance Creations, Toronto is the crossroad to cultural convergence. Pada, born in Bangalore but residing in Canada for over four decades, presented two captivating world premieres last week in the T-Dot that exemplify the confluence of the east and west dance matrix. Shunya and B² are works that represent not a fusion but rather a dialogue between the classical bharatanatyam and ballet idioms, created in collaboration with avant-garde choreographer Mavin Khoo, dancers from Toronto’s Ballet Jörgen, and other guest artists.
Shunya, the Hindu concept of zero invented by mathematicians thousands of years ago, represents completeness and potential. Contrary to the western thought in which zero is a symbol of absolute absence, shunya is imbued with philosophical and spiritual metaphors, evoking mystery and ambiguity. Pada’s choreography portrays these notions through a cross-cultural dialogue between bharatanatyam and kathak styles, two foreign movement languages that are rooted in ancient esoteric traditions.
Three Sampradaya dancers are joined by four high calibre dancers from India, Germany, England and Canada in the densely detailed abstract work. Acute concentration and sophisticated coordination is required to execute the precise dynamics and expressive gestures conveyed by the dancers through a Zen-like fluidity which lingers through moments of stillness. Impressive feats are performed as one male dancer suspends himself briefly on tiptoe without the support of footwear as another spins with unbelievable rapidity and control. The dancers are accompanied onstage by a percussionist, vocalist, and bansuri (bamboo flute) player. The production is enhanced by video designer Jeremy Mimnagh’s projections of rotating circles, strips of Asian script, and a fitting closing image of the infinite symbol.
Bharatanatyam and ballet collide in B², a history-making intercultural collaboration between Khoo, Pada, and Ballet Jörgen. Four dancers from each discipline dressed in white occupy the stage, blending two distinct classical genres which at once contradict and complement one another. While the ballet dancers strive to appear weightless en pointe, the bharatanatyam dancers embrace their relationship to the ground with a constant demi-plié stance and intricate, weighty footwork. The traditional classicism inherent in both styles is what ties the piece together and Khoo emphasizes long pauses and poses as the dancers weave together, allowing viewers to adjust to this progressive paradigm. A pas de deux between two males further pushes through barriers of tradition as they take turns partnering one another, executing daring lifts and pointework in what emerges as a natural collaboration of gender and genres.
Pada is an artistic intellectual whose work is rooted in philosophical concepts. Her varied work ranges from the deeply profound and tragic, referring to her work Revealed by Fire (2003) which dealt with the loss of her husband and two daughters in the 1985 Air India terrorist attacks, to lighter matter such as Cricket (2005) about India’s sporting obsession. Pada can be credited for bringing the two thousand year old bharatanatyam dance form onto Canada’s main stages with Sampradaya Dance Creation, retaining tradition while exhibiting contemporary innovation which leaves nothing to be lost in translation.
