Of Water Bodies and Womanhood with Chitresh Das Institute
Preethi Ramaprasad
The floor rumbled through the theater, transporting me immediately to the mountainous source of the Ganga, commencing Chitresh Das Institute’s performance at ODC Theater, “Invoking the River.” The dancers began moving across the very top of the raked seating and with the fluidity of water, cascaded down to the stage in tandem with pianist Utsav Lal.
The young kathakas used South Asian rivers as metaphors to discuss water and womanhood. While the Ganga linked to the Alaknanda personified by Kritika Sharma and Vanita Mundhra witnessed the circles of life, sacrifice, and love on her banks, the Kaveri by Mayuka Sarukkai saw the journey from childhood to motherhood, pounding her hands and feet to break ceilings and expectations. Finally, Shruti Pai’s Godhavari made a statement on the treatment of widows in South Asian culture by using the imagery of a white cloth. Throughout the show, each dancer demonstrated an artistic process guided by Charlotte Moraga that blended South Asian myths with personal struggle.
A highlight was Alka Raghuram’s poetic narration with abstract animation, representing an abstraction from the rivers’ physicality. Utsav Lal’s calming piano accompanied by Nilan Chaudhuri on the tabla moved me through the entire show, a unique choice for Kathak which complemented its fast-paced spins and footwork.
While I was interested in the ways that each dancer studied nature and feminism, I was curious about how this exploration might evolve by confronting fraught South Asian histories. For example, while Kandukuri Veeresalingam, who inspired the Godhavari segment, was a fighter for many women’s rights, he was also an architect of the Anti-Nautch movement in India, which forever changed the perception of Kathak and other pactices. How can we as South Asian dancers acknowledge pasts as we journey with transnational dance forms?
Preethi Ramaprasad is a dancer, musician, curator, and Ph.D. candidate in Critical Dance Studies at UC Riverside.
