Image caption: Red lighting and searing facial expressions builds the tension in a performance modelled after Nataraja’s dance of destruction

By Hema Mohan. Photos by TET Photography SG.

The final featured show of this year’s NUS Arts Festival was Kaala Chakra (Wheel of Time). As a work-in-progress developed over 2 years, this first iteration was produced to showcase the versatility of Bharatanatyam in expression and collaboration. The performance was an interdisciplinary performance combining the drawings of visual artist Joshua Yang and music from Mario Venagas with the dance prowess of Mrs Santha Bhaskar. The final result is an ode to time and its meandering ways. The performance is a venture beyond the traditional to fuse new music and art with an age-old dance form to explore the nuances of time in our lives.

Our lives are blanketed by time. We live, measure, travel, work and rest within the boundaries of time. We may spend a few minutes to brew tea but an hour to make a cake. It takes years for a mountain to form but only moments for a flood to wash away the land. Mrs Bhaskar explores the multiplicity of time in the first segment of the performance, ‘Matra’. Matra refers to a unit in time, one that can range from a second to eons. The dancers personify the different lengths of time by executing the same movements at different speeds. These asynchronous movements blended with the cosmic-influenced soundtrack were visually stunning to me. It inspired me think about the intimacy of time and how it moves at a different pace for all of us.

Kshana, the second dance segment, was named after an instant of time in Sanskrit. Combined with the colourfully lit stage and brilliant costumes, it was a vibrant and energetic depiction of Nataraja’s dance of destruction. Re-enacting the tale from Hindu philosophy, it portrayed Nataraja’s destruction of the world and the final calm that follows, all within an instant. The expressive eyes and powerful hand movements of the dancers painted an evocative performance filled with vigor. It was juxtaposed against drawings by Joshua Yang that formed a striking background to the dance. Winding and snake-like, the drawings were a wonderful visual complement to the splendour of the dance. The 2 dance segments were interspersed with lovely poetic renditions in Tamil that gave reverence to nature’s relationship with time. I found that to be a very interesting detail that I hadn’t experienced in dance performances before.

As a former Bharatanatyam dancer, it was nostalgic to see the dance performed live on stage after such a long time. To see time depicted by such a timeless dance was a treat. What can be more apt to depict time than a dance laden with centuries of history? Kaala Chakra (Wheel of Time) was a radiant showcase of the arts and its fluidity. Watch till the end to get a glimpse into the thoughts of the artists and the performers.

Kaala Chakra (Wheel of Time) was staged live on 27 March at University Cultural Centre Theatre and will be screened online for free from 5 – 16 April. Please click here to find out more.