During the centerpiece "24 hours of Harvard" of Harvard's 4th annual Worldwide Week, four of the University's units across continents will join forces and present a dance and music session entitled "Channels of Expression in Times of Change". You may find broadcasting details for these four unique performances in or site's calendar.
The list that follows offers extensive information for each of the contributions to the session.
Shreya Dua, guided by Kevin McGrath
Geeta Chandran
Shreya Dua (editors: Rajiv Chandran and Kevin McGrath)
A confluence of three Indian Classical Dances – Bharatnatyam, Odissi, and Kathak – revolving around the iconography of the God Shiva, the Lord who presides over both change and equilibrium in the cosmos.
Two aspects of Shiva are portrayed. First is his association with the serpents that adorn his body, these lithe creatures that are metaphors of all creativity. The second is the drum that he holds in his right hand. Our production demonstrates how these two dimensions are related to the health and well-being of universal order, as Shiva presides over the rhythmic life cycle of creation and destruction.
The ontogeny that Shiva represents and which we express through our own dance enables us to imitate and apprehend the paradoxical uncertainty and yet precision of human time; a period which is at present disordered by a devastating pandemic.
Prelude 18 danced by Rebecca Lallande
danced by Vanessa Gayle Carmichael-Elder
danced by Cynthia Word
A series of three solo dances that reflect on the emotional impact of the pandemic and the enduring beauty of nature.
Commentary from Cynthia Word, Artistic Director of Word Dance Theater (WDT):
“When Zoie Lafis, Executive Director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, described the Channels of Expressions project to me, she asked if WDT would want to be part of it, of course I said YES. But we had very little time to imagine what our contribution would be, given the many restrictions that face the performing artists at the time of COVID and the timeline for the project. My company has not rehearsed together since early March 2020, so our normal creative process has been prohibited. I did not want to provide a clip from an existing performance because I felt that would represent a different time than we are in now. My solution was to ask three of our company members to pick a piece of music that expresses something of how they are feeling during this pandemic time, and to be prepared to dance with that music. We then gathered at the beautiful gardens of the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, DC. Each dancer would pick where they wanted to perform their solo, and we would record each dance. The video reflects our required separation, the unifying beauty of nature and some of how we use our art form to express our feelings.”
Evan Katsarelis and Reina Laina
Panos Economou
Reina and Evan are two friends, who enjoy each other’s presence through the closeness they have. But suddenly, there is a change, a shift to a state of dystopia, which forces each other to move away and even blocks contact between them.
Through Alan Watts’ narration at the beginning and then with three songs of a different rhythm, this choreography reflects the concept of change, and of proximity and distancing, obviously inspired by the crisis that the global community is experiencing today. In the first part of the act, the emphasis is on the transition to a state of disconnection and how this is experienced by the two friends. In the second part of the act, the two heroes, after an agonized effort, manage to reconnect, showing that human relationships can overcome crises and that the transition to an undesirable situation eventually has a parenthetical impact over time.
The selected music offers the right tempo to capture the emotions of the theme in an experimental dance conception encompassing elements from R’n’B, modern, and contemporary dance. Among other things, the reconnection of the two friends, which is the culmination of the choreography (approximately in the middle of the performance) is combined with the sound of a traditional musical instrument, the gaida. The special music of this instrument and the sharpness of its sound give the point of the climax and, at the same time, enable the choreography to converse musically, but also choreographically, with the Greek tradition and in a way to integrate it within a modern aesthetic context and within the dramatic time of this story.
The choreography unfolds in the inside and outside spaces of the emblematic neoclassical building of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Nafplio, incorporating elements related to the operation of the building.
Contemporary Ensemble
Fatima Suarez
Cristiane Pinho
Fatima Suarez, Leila Gomes, Luma Santana, Rachel Neves
Carlinhos Brown
Luiza Tavares
Maria Carolina Silva
This work is the result of choreographic research by Fatima Suarez, bringing together movements of the spiritual practice of Candomblé in Brazil and the movements and steps from the repertoire of Isadora Duncan (1877-1927), a pioneer of dance and a significant figure in the in the history of artistic creativity and culture.
For the choreographer, the first inspiration comes from the practices of Candomblé, which reflect the beliefs and understandings handed down by Brazil’s African ancestors, the Yoruba from Nigeria and Benin, expressing the necessity to respect and honor the sacred relationship of nature’s elements and with human beings. The dance is performed with costumes of sea and straw from the Atlantic coast using the music of the Bahia composer Carlinhos Brown, as well as Talavera music, with words in Yoruba and neologisms created by the artist himself, staged and dictated as a theatrical text. Divine entities, called orixás, are mentioned: Ganga, Oxalá, Xangô, which are recognized as forces of nature.
According to the Yoruba peoples, after the world was created, each orixá received divine energy called axé, which gave the orixás the ability to rule over certain areas of the material world.
Each orixá has a specific dance and dance steps and also represents a certain aspect of nature both inside and outside of the religious context. For example: Oxalá corresponds to the air that we breathe and Oyá/Iansã to the winds; Lemanjá is found in the oceans and on beaches; Oxum can be found in the rivers and waterfalls. To contact Oxóssi, the hunter; Ogum, the warrior; and Ossaim, who rules the sacred leaves, the clue is in the forests. To approach Xangô, the god of thunder and lightning, one goes to a stone quarry, as it is very dangerous to be close to a lightning rod.
The second source of inspiration was the movement technique of Isadora Duncan. According to Isadora, the development of her dance was a natural phenomenon – not an invention, but a rediscovery of the classical principles of beauty, motion, and form. Her dances were born of the impulse to embrace life’s bittersweet challenges, meeting destiny and fate head-on in her own whirlwind journey, filled with both tragedy and ecstasy. She was determined to “dance a different dance,” telling her own life story through abstract, universal expressions of the human condition.
The goal of this work was to perform this choreographic research creating a fusion of movements for the African gods of Candomblé (Orixás) and for Isadora’s artistic gestures related to nature and the divine. For the artist, this merger would create images that would somehow relate to the idea of offering, as both relate to the elements of nature and human movements.
