Since 2014, my attention as a performance maker has been on intimate kinds of work. I see the artist (particularly moving bodies) as the very site for the integration of worlds. The work we put out, is a capsule like byte of the processing that takes place in the research, be it embodied, academic, anecdotal or experiential.

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Today, I feel that our value as artists lies in our ability to listen - to the community, the zeitgeist and indeed the inner voice. As an artist, I am therefore trying to listen to what is needed. Based on my reading of the energy, emotion and aggression around me and within me, I have, with help from my Animist teachers and the dancers been exploring “ceremony” as a form.

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Even months before the pandemic we have been witnessing the wounds of the collective - protests, genocide, casteist and patriarchal violence, hyper-nationalism, privilege, poverty, social injustice, rape epidemics and squashing of dissent to name just some of the collective's suffering. My sense is that I could be of better service if I took a gentler route than I have before in past work.There is heaviness and a fear of the unknown that we are grappling with and even those who can afford lockdowns are hugely burdened with the guilt of that privilege. I am therefore currently staying away from something disruptive and searching for what unifies us. Connection with what is larger than us is a resource and I refuse to give that up. The ceremony works with the bodies and stories of the dancers, within sacred space created by inviting the elements ( our common ancestors) into the circle and by inviting witnesses (audience) without which nothing can happen. Within the set material, stories of the witnesses are invited for processing. This is a Ceremony of Longing and passes through shame, forgiveness, guilt, fear, love and other states to eventually shine the light on our longing. The longing that will shape the emerging world.

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Choreography: Diya Naidu

Performance: Paridhi Bihani, Snigdha Prabhakar, Maitreyee Joshi, Diya Naidu

Team: Masoom Parmar, Dipankar Panth, Sudeep Raj

Supported by: The Courtyard and Shoonya - Centre for Art and Somatic Practices