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 Sapphire Creations Dance Company with Ministry of Culture, Govt of India presents INTERFACE Ed X 2024-25 December 10-12, 2024 Kolkata November 28, 2024  INTERFACE | ED X, in collaboration with Ministry of Culture, Govt of India KOLKATA CHAPTER - 10TH DECEMBER TO 12TH DECEMBER 2024 INTERFACE| ED X is the 10th edition of India's premier biennial contemporary dance festival, celebrating alternative and multidisciplinary performance art. Running from December 2024 to August 2025, it spans - Kolkata, Shantiniketan, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi - bringing together artists from France, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Poland, and India. Since its inception in 2002, INTERFACE has been a platform which explores the nuances of contemporary creative expression through a multi-disciplinary approach, seeking to engage with the emerging language of art today. This edition expands its scope, incorporating non-dancers, disabled performers, and youth from marginalised communities, while exploring the intersections of various art forms. By fostering collaboration and dialogue across generations, disciplines, and cultures, INTERFACE| ED X strives to question and understand the role of dance and art in today's world - transforming it into a force for empathy, connection, and societal change. From the Festival Director: Sudarshan Chakravorty Vision and purpose of INTERFACE | Ed X INTERFACE| Ed X is a platform dedicated to transforming conventional practices and extending accessibility. In an industrial and societal context, where categorization leads to restrictive frameworks that shape artistic expression, INTERFACE| Ed X attempts to address this by encouraging multidisciplinary, hybrid, and collaborative artistic forms. By challenging prevailing norms in performance, INTERFACE| Ed X seeks to interrogate structures that marginalize certain voices and narratives within dance. Moving beyond tokenism an honest effort is made to embrace diversity, difference, and intersectionality within the arts. This approach represents a movement towards democratizing dance, giving every artist a voice and a space to be seen, regardless of background, identity, or ability. Through its inclusive practices, collaborative ethos, and interdisciplinary focus, INTERFACE| Ed X positions itself as a space where all bodies and stories can coexist, interact, and contribute to the art of performances. Schedule for Kolkata Chapter MAIN PERFORMACES December 10  (Pic: Laurent Philippe) TO THE BONE LA HORDE/ Ballet National de Marseille, France Alliance Francaise du Bengale, Park Mansion Terrace, 6:30pm Entry by Registration December 11 
RANDOM CHAPTERS MAYA DANCE THEATRE / UNDER THE BRIDGE, Singapore  KITAREBA SAPPHIRE CREATIONS DANCE COMPANY with Dipannita Acharya, Chandriam Bhattacharya & Joy Sankar Gyan Manch, 6.30pm Tickets December 12 YOUNG PERFORMERS FORUM Subhadrakalyan, Classical Vocal & Tabla, Kolkata Debanjali Bandapadhyay, Mohiniyattam, Kolkata Aheli Dey, Contemporary, Serampore Mukulita Ganguly, Contemporary, Kolkata Rajnandini Pal, Bharatanatyam/Waacking, Kolkata Dyuman Das, Violin, Kolkata Jishna Ganguly, Kuchipudi, USA Shahrin Johry, Street form, Singapore At: CIMA, 5.30pm Register ALLIED EVENTS 10th Dec: OPEN WORKSHOP Alliance Francaise Terrace, Park Mansion, 9.30am - 10.30am by La Hordes, France 12th Dec: Round Table Discussion American Centre Library, 2pm - 4pm Topic: Dancing in the Diaspora & Changing context of Indian dance abroad' Speakers: Jonathan Hollander, USA Sreyashi Dey, USA Priyadarshini Ghosh, India Raka Maitra, Singapore Kavitha Krishnan, Singapore Additional Moderators' Bench Ratnottama Sengupta, Art Critic, India Satabdi Bhattacharya, Educator, India Debanuj Dasgupta, Expert Gender Studies, USA Enakshi Sinha, Dancer, Canada Tamal Mukherjee, Multidisciplinary Artist, India PRODUCTION / PERFORMER DETAILS RANDOM CHAPTERS Maya Dance Theatre and Under the Bridge Collective, Singapore Founded in 2007, Maya Dance Theatre (MDT) fuses Bharatanatyam and Contemporary dance to create impactful performances. Its debut, Bophana, depicted a Cambodian woman's tragic story during the Khmer Rouge regime. MDT addresses issues like mental health and patriarchy through works like the Pancha series and empowers artists with disabilities via the Diverse Abilities Dance Collective (DADC). Recent projects include SEEDs, fostering inclusive arts (2021-2023), and Moving Stillness, a VR project on ocean pollution featured at Kolkata's Climate Change Conference in 2023. MDT's diverse projects advocate for inclusion, enrich lives, and sustain its vital role in Singapore's arts scene. Under the Bridge (UTB) is a dance collective connecting artists across generations and styles, united by a love for movement. Their work blends Contemporary, Street, and Asian dance forms, integrating Bharatanatyam, Street dance, and Western-Asian Contemporary. This fusion bridges cultural traditions in Singapore, appealing to diverse audiences. What began as a grassroots initiative has grown to include workshops, performances, and international festivals, positioning UTB as a cultural ambassador for Singapore. Their commitment to dance innovation is reshaping the understanding of traditional dance and cultivating a deeper appreciation for cultural diversity among dancers and audiences alike. Random Chapters is a full-length contemporary dance production that explores emotions shaped by unique circumstances, structured like a book with multiple chapters. Through movement and screen dance, each chapter resonates deeply with humanity. Fusing Asian aesthetic body and contemporary expressions, it connects people across backgrounds. Since its 2013 premiere, Random Chapters has toured Indonesia, Thailand, the USA, London, Laos, and Malaysia. This new iteration features an inclusive performance with dancers from diverse communities, amplifying its universal message of shared humanity and celebration of presence and inclusion. Presented by Maya Dance Theatre and Under the Bridge Collective, the production is directed by Kavitha Krishnan. KITAREBA Sapphire Creations Dance Company, India Sapphire Creations is Eastern India's premier experimental dance company, renowned for its innovative and dynamic approach to movement. For 32 years, the ensemble has explored contemporary global issues like gender, society, and consumerism through a South Asian lens, blending ancient Indian traditions with modern techniques like contact improvisation and multimedia integration. Sapphire's works span proscenium stages, site-specific explorations, installations, and collaborations in dance, theatre, television, and film. Performing across 19 countries, the company's fresh, organic idiom embodies a bold, global sensitivity, creating thought-provoking art that resonates universally. KITAREBA explores the agony of migration and the resilience of connectedness beyond borders. Focusing on the plight of Bengali migrants in Northeast India, it highlights decades of political strife that divided communities yet failed to sever their shared love for their homeland. Blending factual narratives with indigenous dialects, folk music, dance, multimedia, and spoken word, the production reflects on loss, identity, and the enduring spirit of belonging. KITAREBA is a tribute to hope, love, and the struggle for home, resonating with migration stories across times and cultures while challenging the divisions imposed by political and ethnic partitions. TO THE BONE (La)Horde - The Collective Brutti /Debrouwer /Harel, France (LA)HORDE is a collective that was founded in 2013 by the three artists Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel. Together they question codes of various artistic disciplines, especially contemporary live art and performing arts. At the head of the Ballet National de Marseille since September 2019, they have created choreographic works, films, video installations and performances that always evolve around the body in movement. From the interaction and the juxtaposition of these different media, they develop scenarios and actions that take up radically contemporary themes and questions. (LA)HORDE collaborates with communities of individuals on the margins of the mainstream, and part of their art is also the practice of practical solidarity. They have worked with groups of seventy-year-olds, blind performers, smokers, juveniles... Contrary to any form of hierarchy and cultural appropriation, they work at eye level with the performers. (...) At the centre of their work is the body. (LA)HORDE creates works from their encounters with various online communities and thus also investigates what has happened to dance since the advent of the Internet. This is a theme that (LA)HORDE is very passionate about and so they define their work as work on "post-Internet dance". - Claire Diez (dance specialist, cultural journalist) About the YOUNG PERFORMERS FORUM in collaboration with CIMA This exhibition - SHAPE WITHOUT FORM, SHADE WITHOUT COLOUR - highlights over 40 seminal works of art ranging from the 19th century to current times. A body of work which, we hope, will provoke questions and try to restore a semblance of sanity and solace. The title is derived from The Hollow Men, one of the most celebrated poems of the 20th century by T.S. Eliot, describing a desolate and barren world inhabited by hapless and defeated people. We invite young performing artists to view and spend time with this rare body of work, to feel the shape without form and introspect about the shade without colour and express/interpret through their form of performative arts. Supported by Caring Minds International, Goomti, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Alliance Francaise du Bengal, French Institute in India, Apeejay Surendra American Centre, US Consulate in Kolkata National Arts Council (Singapore), Apsara Asia, Radio Partner: 91.9 Friends FM Food Partner: Cakes Hospitality Partner: Novotel Kolkata FOR INFO: Contact: +91 9836271565/ +91 9830277603 Email: interfacefestival2024@gmail.com Website: interfacefestival.org |
