@thestage.official Friday, 07 October 2022
In a world where artists are encouraged and rewarded to create for an algorithm, where musical masterpieces are reduced to 10 seconds, where the joy of dance is constrained to only 30 seconds, where a filmmaker with extraordinary vision and tall tales is forced to convey their message in only under a minute, and trends are celebrated over connection, we found a desperate need to keep the passion of creation as well as the artistic mind of the artist alive by giving them a platform where they can have a real connection with the audience, feed off of each other’s energies and look them in the eye and convey their stories with pride.
The Stage is a platform for artists that is focused on giving opportunities to showcase talent and creativity to a live audience while also guiding artists in their creative process.
The first branch of The Stage is called Move Your Cretivity. It focuses on movement art, in which we include art forms such as dance, martial arts, mime, yoga, aerial, animal flow, and gymnastics. Having explored different movement forms ourselves, we realised that there is a core tenet that binds them together. All of them are modes of expression for which our body is the instrument. We also want to get rid of stigma and stereotypes surrounding certain forms. For example, the thought that martial arts is aggressive or that yoga is only practised for flexibility or even that contemporary dance is choreographed only to sad Bollywood songs.
We want to show that all the movement arts have the capacity of artistic expression that can move and inspire audiences through their performances. We also want to create a safe and artistic space for all artists who want to unleash and explore their creative sides. That is why we curated this branch of The Stage where movement finds its voice.
While art is a mode of expression for artists, it is a window into the life and soul of that artist for the audience. Therefore, we didn’t want this event to only be a night of performance; we want this to be an unforgettable experience for all; a safe place full of positive vibes where people from all walks of life can form connections through interactive sessions and pop-up stores. After having to stay confined for the last two years, I think we have come to value real, in-person, human connections even more than before.
The event will be taking place on the 7th of October, 2022 at Veda Factory, Versova, Mumbai. It will be starting from 6pm and will go on till 10pm. The performances will be happening from 8pm till 9:30pm, before which we will be having interactive sessions with the audiences, artist meetups as well as pop-up stores. There will be around nine performance and the selected performers will be given sessions with the jury members who will help and guide them through their creative processes.
Jury Members
Gia Singh Arora
Gia has developed a practice that embraces hybridity and combines her roles of performer, filmmaker, somatic practitioner, and image-maker. She describes her practice as a process of observing and listening, whether through the body or the lens. Her engagement with both allows the borders between seeing-doing and thinking- acting upon to merge. Throughout her childhood, she trained in Odissi and during her undergraduate studies at Ashoka University, she began reconfiguring her relationship to classical dance and questioned rehearsal vs performance, form vs feeling, and repetition vs improvisation. Her own performance work is now an amalgamation of theatre, movement, dance and performance art. She has performed at Girnar Festival Gujarat, ISCKON Mumbai, Yoga Pela Paz, Brazil, Kathiwada City house, Method, Soho House, Magnetic Fields Festival, Rajasthan. She recently performed SHEER, a performance piece in response to Saviya Lopes’s installation The Birthday Suit and is currently developing her performance piece Man-Eater.
Eden Pereria
A highly skilled and intensively trained teacher, Eden specialises in Ballet and contemporary. He started his training in India at The Terence Lewis Dance Company and The Danceworx Performing Arts Academy. In New York, he trained at Alvin Ailey, Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Centre. In Israel he trained at The Vertigo Dance Company and in Hong Kong, at the BeDrex Studio.
A versatile dancer and professional in Contemporary, Ballet, Jazz, Urban, Hip Hop, Eden’s range of experience spans across teaching, performing, choreography and modelling. From stage shows to creative pieces and from dance reality shows to assisting for film choreography, Eden has a varied body of work to his credit.
Somya Kautia
Somya is a contemporary dancer and movement practitioner based in India with over eight years of experience. The body’s capability of how much or how little needs to be done to communicate lends itself strongly to her creative process. Over time she has built her individual research in contemporary dance and developed a pedagogy for movement and improvisation. Through teaching, she strives to cultivate a curiosity among individuals to explore with their bodies and create a space for research while bringing attention and consciousness to movement and its source, which she believes bridges training and performance.
Dr. Divya Sharma Scott
Dr. Divya Sharma is a sports therapist, physiotherapist and artist who practices kinesiology taping, pilates and dry needling. Apart from her excellence in academics and in her profession, what sets Divya apart is the nature of her solutions - they are tailored to naturally suit your body, behaviour and routine seamlessly. Her diverse skill set makes for the precise diagnosis of the individual using simple, natural, machineless solutions that the human body is inherently wired to respond to.
Co-Curators
Nishanth Raj
After having trained professionally in jazz, hip-hop, ballet and contemporary with The Danceworx for 3 years, Nishanth went to The Tagou Wushu School, Shaolin Temple, China, where he learnt the arts of Kung fu, Tai chi and Qi gong. He is currently pursuing acting and filmmaking. He also has a brief knowledge of kalaripayattu, wing chun and Sanda (Chinese kickboxing).
Yesha Shah
Yesha Shah was introduced to movement at a very young age. She has trained intensively in Bharatanatyam for nine years. After finishing her arangetram she trained professionally at The Danceworx academy for three years learning Contemporary, ballet, Hip-Hop and Jazz. She is also well versed in folk and semi-classical dance forms. She is currently pursuing Dance Movement Therapy.
