Have you ever watched strangers on the street and wondered what their lives might be like? What are the stories behind their actions and movements? And how might you be connected to them in this great big world?
In 1992, experimental Austrian dramatist Peter Handke (Offending the Audience, Wings of Desire) premiered The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other, a one-act wordless play about the things that happen in a day at an unspecified town square. The 105-minute piece, which consisted of 450 characters played by 27 actors doing absurd actions and movements, was a phenomelogical exercise in the first-person experience: people-watching.
In Raka Maitra’s latest production, the dancer-choreographer takes inspiration from Handke’s landmark work to the railway platform, melding dance and theatre into a series of wordless movements based on everyday gestures, filled with strong imagery and fleeting glimpses of stories.
Described by Dance Europe as “without doubt a dancer of the 21st century”, Maitra defies the conventional dichotomy of classical and contemporary with her expansion of new vocabularies and contexts of odissi. A disciple of odissi dancer Madhavi Mudgal, she was awarded the Shringarmani, a national level award for odissi. Several of Maitra’s recent works were inspired by Indian writers and poets.
About CHOWK Productions and Raka Maitra
Founded in 2007 by Raka Maitra, CHOWK creates artistic productions, engages in research and provides dance classes. Its vision is to be recognised internationally for creating dance that moves and speaks without borders. The company’s artistic productions include full-length contemporary dance works that have been commissioned by local theatres and festivals in Singapore, which have toured internationally. Maitra’s dance language draws from the martial arts and classical Indian dance. From 2007-2011, Maitra was an associate artist with The Substation.
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Credit: image of Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay
Age
6+
Price
Fee: 30 SGD
Telephone number
+65 6828 8377
Links
Address
Singapore1 Esplanade Drive, Singapore 038981
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