Dance on Camera Works

Jiva Dance’s first short film, Urban Nritta (pronounced: nrit-thah), presents classical Bharatanatyam dance against the backdrop of New York City. Nritta is the expression of rhythm through the body in dance, and in this setting we express the rhythms of Indian classical dance and music as well as the beat of the city where we live and create.

The piece we perform is “Into the Battlefield,” excerpted from our original work “Mayura: Blue Peacock.” This scene depicts the dance of the mighty peacock, the vehicle of the Lord Murugan, as it prepares to go into battle. Jiva Dance produces living, breathing classical art for our time and place, in harmony with the rhythms of New York City.

The sundial casts its shadow, marking time…

In the early hours of dawn the earth rumbles, as the baby sprout finds its way to the top and emerges to a sunlit world, calling forth a symphony of blossoms.

The midday heat strikes harshly down and we succumb to the lethargy of the intense heat.

At dusk, the birds return to their nests, the flowers close , the sun and moon shift their balance like two sides of a scale causing the moon to be fully revealed from behind the clouds. The tide grows…

Until nightfall, when the earth returns to its slumber and the whole cycle prepares for yet another day….

Melting,” as my work is called, “speaks to a deep yearning that perhaps many of us are experiencing during these times. Through Meera Bai’s poetry, I am responding to an innate desire to lose myself, to melt into pure love with the hope to negate all that is happening in the world.” The choreography is by Sonali and Maya Kulkarni. “Meera, in many ways, says Sonali, “is a true example of the abandonment of the self and world and the possibility to surrender to desire, a total offering of oneself. Through her words, she exposes the raw and natural emotions dormant in each of us. She pleads to her beloved, Krishna, to turn around, to lift his eyes to hers. She says, ‘I am riveted to you, the words of others don’t matter, the world is meaningless, without you, there is nothing…let me melt into you… “

My days are spent in unrest, my nights sleepless, I am a lotus waiting for the sun, the chakor bird waiting for the moon, show your vision to me so that I may melt into your being,
Let your love envelope and spiral my physical body and tighten around me so that i may return to you as a single point of love.

Stepping out of the house – social distancing style- a play with simple, sparse movement patterns / we walk the streets at two arms length from each other, our eyes darting to and fro, masks covering our faces, wondering, are we safe? Yet, we yearn for a simple touch, an embrace, the sun on our face…

I was challenged with going outside and dancing- a task which I hadn’t done in many months due to the lockdown/ so this was quite a feat to regain the comfort, to dance on asphalt and to be exposed in so many ways…

If Nature had a voice, what would she say –
Would she stay take a breath, take a beat
Hear me, feel me
Respect me

We are bound to Her through the five primordial elements -Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether.
As Shiva’s body manifests thes elements, so do do ours,
I am you and you are me…
Na | Ma | Shi | Va | Ya