BodyMine

BodyMine is a performance by Shabari Rao, which investigates the tension between the experience of ‘body as liability’ and ‘body as abundance’. The body is a fundamental, material constraint that each of us is born with. The current, dominant socio-cultural construction of the body encourages us to experience our bodies as a liability, as something that gets in the way of life. And as such colours our experience of our body.

Dance performance often contributes to the dominant narrative of the body by elevating and showcasing a certain kind of relationship with it; one of control towards display. This performance overturns this experience of the body by exploring the abundance of possibility that the body holds – for art and for life.

|| Credits ||

Choreography and performance: Shabari Rao
Sound design and production: Rajesh Mehar
Collaborators: Lata Mani, Bindhumalini Narayanaswami
Voice: TT Venkatesh, Aarthi Mundkur, Lata Mani, Bindhumalini Narayanaswami
Documentation and rehearsal partner: Maya D’Costa
Design and publicity: Maanvi, Vandana and Akriti
Lights: Niranjan Gokhale

|| Facilitator ||

Shabari Rao is an artist, educator and researcher. She began her professional journey in 1999 under (late) Guru Maya Rao with a BA in Kathak and Choreography. She later went on to get a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance (UK) and also holds an MA in Dance and Education from the Royal Academy of Dance (UK). She has taught and performed extensively and participated in several artist residencies including the International Summer Program at the Watermill Center (New York), and Bodystorming Hits Bangalore at the National Center for Biological Sciences (Bangalore). Her most recent works include co-directing ‘Positively Shameless’, a devised theater performance, and ‘A Dance for Dance’s Case’, a performative presentation presented at Dance Teaching for the 21st Century: Practice and Innovation (Sydney).

She practices as an independent artist and art/education consultant and is also part time faculty at Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology. Her current research focuses on the intersection of body/art/learning.