A Sense Of Being
Shane Shambhu & The Srjan ensemble
Concept
This project brings together the artistic disciplines of Odissi dance, sculpture and poetry through the lens of film into a contemporary context. The starting point will be taken from a poem by Rumi (TBD) that reflects the love and the essence of the human spirit. The project will work with each artistic discipline independently to generate a continually evolving process.
This poem will act as the springboard to discovering a visual language stemming from Odissi but moving beyond the confines of its classical strictures. A sculptor, who is not informed of the source poems, will create a human-sized interpretation of the dancer’s visual language/work, focusing on ‘the emotional’ and life force or energy of the movement, creating an abstract representation of the visual translation of the poem. The dancers’ work and the creation of the sculpture (only specific moments) will be filmed separately. In addition, the poem will be translated into various languages spoken in India and used as a soundscape to the film.
About Artistes
Shane Shambhu & The Srjan ensemble
Shane Shambhu is a multi-faceted artist whose initial training was in the South-Indian performing art of Bharatanatyam. As creative director of multilingual theatre company Altered Skin, Artistic Associate of Centre for Advanced Training Yuva Gati, and currently, Artist-In-Residence at DanceXchange, Shane's artistic career spans many different roles across artistic genres, including work with BBC, British Council, Complicite, Royal Opera House, Theatre Ad Infinitum and Shobana Jeyasingh, to name a few. Following his successful show, Confessions Of A Cockney Temple Dancer, he is currently working as Movement Director with Crying In The Wilderness Productions (Young Vic), Choreographer for Untied Artists for Commonwealth Games 2022, and curating the 2nd edition of Unleashed, an international event-series part of Birmingham International Dance Festival.
The Srjan ensemble is one of India’s leading Odissi dance repertory groups. Under the artistic direction of Guru Ratikant Mohapatra, Srjan performs extensively within India and abroad, presenting compositions in the neo-classical Odissi style, which includes new and improvised movements from the Natyashastra. The ensemble represents the Odissi dance school, SRJAN, a premier training institution founded by Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra at Bhubaneswar, Odisha in 1993. Now run by his son and disciple, Guru Ratikant, Srjan is committed to preserving and popularising the rich culture of Odissi by maintaining high standards of performance and professionalism.
