Design process

My design process comprised of trying many fragmented things and then tying the explorations of those fragments. Performances: From Gondhal, Bharud and Lavani (Tamasha) Gondhal I the only performance which still is weaved with traditions and everyday life of the people. Bharud and Lavani have taken the place in the stage performance. Even if there is no proscenium, a temporary stage is built for Bharud … Continue reading Design process

The garden for performance

I imagine this place to be a practice hub for budding artists.  This place is to be there for the young to get acquainted with different performing arts and if interested, be a part of it and explore. The site thus chosen was amidst the institutional area hoping the place would introduce young minds to the world of performing arts! The site already lures a … Continue reading The garden for performance

Learning through body

The exercise of sketching everyday for a month gave an opportunity to try, fail, try again till you find something interesting and take things ahead. I had always sketched spaces, buildings, trees and vegetation. 2 weeks of drawing human beings took away the inhibition  of being bad at drawing human beings. It provided me with an opportunity to try different mediums to realise where exactly … Continue reading Learning through body

‘i’ndividual to ‘ensemble’

The tableaux was simple because it had cues from the graphical representation we had done it in the precious exercises. Or so I thought. We explored the tableaux in different spaces. I realized that the meaning with which the tableaux were created in the studio, changed, varied, found new connections in new spaces. It made me realize that the emotions are not fixed entities. They … Continue reading ‘i’ndividual to ‘ensemble’

Rhythm within the body, between the bodies and the space

My eyes got sparkly as soon as they brought in the musical instruments. I had dabbled into string instruments like tanpura, guitar and ukulele and also a percussion instrument – a drumset. But seeing all this variety made me feel really excited. It would be safe to say that this exercise was, by far, the most exciting one. We were set free with the instruments … Continue reading Rhythm within the body, between the bodies and the space

Building up a story

Narration of a story, memory, an experience or even an anecdote is not all about expression and experience. Engaging someone in your narration comes down to how you present it, your vocabulary, your emphasis on words, your tone and most importantly the pauses. Emotions and expression always came easily to me, so for this exercise I focused more on what is to be narrated and … Continue reading Building up a story

Program for a garden of performance

The program was inspired by the readings and videos which we discussed during the period of residency and from the study of the performing arts specific to our community. After studying Gondhal and Lavani and Bharud I realized that for any of these performances there need to be explorations in a group as well as individual explorations. Following are some areas in which creative explorations … Continue reading Program for a garden of performance

One plus one is always more than two

An ease in a connection gives you the freedom to explore the surroundings. And in order to become one with another being, to connect with something, one has to forget oneself. The exercise of gaze gave potential for this exploration. With a couple of variables, there was a stark difference in the experience. With Charvi, there was a natural ease. This ease allowed the awareness … Continue reading One plus one is always more than two

Clues of Designing a place of performance

The readings and video references we went through during the first part of the workshop, provided pointers to design with pandemic in perspective. Dr Rustom Bharucha’s reading shed light on how space design and management of Theater happened during the epidemics in past and how these can be dealt with in the present. In the book ‘Beyond the proscenium’, the interviews of Astad Deboo and … Continue reading Clues of Designing a place of performance