PHURRR
Phurrr...a sonic utterance, even though it fails to be registered in any dictionary, yet it is constantly expressed to refer to flights, escapes, breakaways, etc. But what is Phurrr for the one who possesses it? For the one who embodies it, is ‘Phurrr’ an urge, an inspiration, a yearning, a longing, or could it perhaps be an overwhelming desire, an impetus libido? The performance investigates, ‘impulse’, the “impulse that dares to aspire” and what concedes f the impulse doesn’t meet its’ own aspiration.....
This solo is centered around a '19-year-old woman,’ who is daring and seeking to dance out her exuberance, she is assuming the field of life is waiting to embrace her... But her unfolding reveals the entanglements, slips, hostilities, and hardships, which she starts seeing as the way of life, till once again, she comes to face: Phurrr... and this time she has to decide...
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Choreography and Performance: Riya Mandal
Concept and Direction: Abhishek Kukereja and Riya Mandal
Small Talk is an experimental film which choreographically explores the negotiation of silence between two pair of hands.
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Performers: Parinay Mehra and Riya Mandal
Videography and edit: Akshay Burman
Choreography: Riya Mandal
SMALL TALK
FUTUREPROOF
Futureproof, a play set in a Victorian past. Despite that, it is about the world we live in today. The play celebrates difference and extraordinariness and challenges our need to pigeonhole people. It looks at prejudice and alienation, at gender identity, ways of seeing, choices, looking at what it means to be 'normal, social mores, but most of all it looks at selfhood.
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Ctrl C Ctrl V
This performance scrutinizes the way a body is distorted gradually. It is an exploration of how the body is constantly programmed to follow a set of norms.
Performed as part of the Chrysalis Project, 2015 @ India Habitat Centre, New Delhi
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Performers: Bhumika Arora, Rajan Rathore, and Riya Mandal
Choreography: Riya Mandal
UNFOLD AT 70BPM
Observing how the human body communicates, this piece continuously zooms in and out of the body, deconstructing gestures, postures, and facial expressions of both everyday and stylized mannerisms. The use of a metronome adds a mechanistic layer to the reading of the body and its expressions, bringing into focus the juxtaposition of the natural self with the trained self.
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8NhGg2amdw
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Choreography: Riya Mandal
Costume: Riya Mandal
Music: Gabriel
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IN CONSTRUCTION
A site-specific performance that delves into broken walls, unused objects, and physical interactions of laborers. The film is an attempt to see in fragments a sense of return to a beginning.
The performance was part of a four-week international residency program curated by TIFA working studios, Pune.
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Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKq-dKX6SBY
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Filmed by: Myoungjae Kim
The image that has triggered this particular work is that of a butcher shop, where one sees a cage full of hens surviving in the smallest area possible. These creatures, crammed together for lack of space, can be seen hopping around and climbing onto each other in an attempt to adjust – and adapt – to the given environment.
Living with different people in a defined space with an ongoing fight for survival; trying to mark our own identity in the space to justify our presence; mostly cribbing, and at times rebelling, against the given environment, but eventually coming back to follow the given norms. These are some of the reasons behind finding a strong sense of resonance between the image of a cage and our present society.
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23.4/15.8
I SEE HOME
I see home, says a 10-year-old Palestinian cartoon character on his way back home.
A choreographic response to the Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip. The performance weaves stories of displacement, exile, of daily life, and resilience under siege from the perspective of a 10-year-old cartoon character.
This performance was part of the Gaza 51 festival, New Delhi.
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