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 Aditi Mangaldas's Lost in the Forest excavates liminality - Sanjukta Wagh e-mail: sanjuktawagh@gmail.com Photos: Nirvair Singh November 13, 2024 Empty frames hang loose, swinging repeatedly back and forth as the dancer glides in and out of them. There is a desperate attempt to capture an image, find darkness, a boat in a river or a river in a boat. As a fellow passenger in this roller coaster of movement, I have no choice but to ride the waves with the dancer or topple over trying to resist the relentless momentum. I feel as though I am suspended between the frames, finding and losing moments of throb and tug, fear and fury, beauty and ugliness, explosion and dissolution, danger and disillusion.  Then a deer appears, making love to a deceptive double moon, discovering that it has lost its bearings in a forest. Its only comfort is that the forest, too, has lost its bearings. This play of imagery, movement and soundscape evokes deep separation and fierce union as the music and dance sometimes surge together and at others wrestle playfully with each other or find they are in thunderous combat. The power of pulse hits me. The dancer reaches out towards the musicians yet manages to remain just out of reach. The deer moves between realms of dream, sleeplessness, the promise of sleep, or is it awakening?  These images transport me to the liminal world of disorientation during the pandemic. I relive my longing for a resolution in that elusive sam that arrives but never stays long enough. I realise that I too am a puppet lost in the forest, oscillating between arrival and departure, restlessness and dream and the promise of sunrise after inevitable sunsets. Aditi Mangaldas and her team received a well-deserved standing ovation for their craft, artistry and vision on 9th August 2024 at the Jamshed Bhabha Theatre in NCPA, Mumbai. The performance meticulously layered the very language and soundscape of Kathak in order to alternatively throw us out of our comfort zone and lead us to a collective crescendo. Aditi Mangaldas's dance accompanied live by the robust quartet of musicians Faraz Ahmed, Shahnawaz Khan, Ashish Gangani and Nishit Gangani epitomized boundlessness, the performers commandingly cutting through the labyrinth of light and shadow, sound and silence. In her power-packed dance, Aditi personified the hope and resilience of a single human being thriving against all odds in a grand but brutal scheme. The music by Shubha Mudgal, Faraz Ahmed and Ashish Gangani, the set design by Manish Kansara, the light design by Govind Singh Yadav and costumes by Sandhya Raman added just the right elements to bring this wonderous whirl of naach and narrative to life.  Performer, choreographer, teacher, curator and writer, Sanjukta Wagh is the co-founder of an interdisciplinary initiative called Beej in Mumbai which is engaged in exploring the creative process and improvisation, alternative methods of Kathak dance pedagogy and collaborative performance. She is a recipient of several scholarships and awards including British Council's Charles Wallace Scholarship and the META for best actress in the lead role. |
