Produced by Max Mueller Bhavan, the dance will be presented by 206 Dance Collective in Bengaluru this weekend
Produced by Max Mueller Bhavan, the dance will be presented by 206 Dance Collective in Bengaluru this weekend
Four dancers from diverse backgrounds, but bound by the strings of movement, came together in Bengaluru in 2019 and founded the 206 Dance Collective in October 2020. The four will now present their work ‘Dance Songs’ at the Bangalore International Centre.
The evening of dance, says Ainesh Madan, a part of the collective, is inspired by the writings of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. “Dance Songs, aims at celebrating Nietzsche’s writings, with a particular focus on The Dance Song and The Second Dance Song from his seminal work Thus Spoke Zarathustra.”
Apart from Ainesh, who has also choreographed the piece, the performance will feature Anishaa Tavag, Dayita Nereyeth and Joshua Sailo. Abhaydev Praful has composed the music.
“We met during the pandemic and founded the dance collective soon after. “We had worked together on a film on dance titled Solitude.”
This will be the team’s first live show in the city, says Ainesh who took to dance a decade ago, majoring in dance and economics in New York. “I primarily studied post modern dance and choreography.” Ainesh lived and worked in New York for four years as a dancer. “I worked for other choreographers; but what I really enjoyed was creating my own movements. Once I decided to return to India, I met the other members of the collective.”
Though all four dancers have a common background in contemporary and post modern dance, Ainesh says they have diverse influences as well. “I am trained in ballet and am a self-taught hip-hop dancer. Dayita has been into ballet since she was four and has studied liberal arts, Joshua comes from a contemporary and post-modern background, while Anishaa has a background in hip hop and has trained intensively in contemporary dance in India.”
Post-modern, Ainesh says is an American idiom that came as a response to the modern dance scene. “Modern came as a retaliation to ballet and its formalisation. Martha Graham and others came up with idea of ‘anything but ballet’, but post-modern is where a little ballet is brought into the mix.”
206 Dance Collective will perform on May 27 and 28, at 7 pm. It is open to all.
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