PHYSICAL PROGRAMME

FILMS ON ARTISTS – DANCE ENGAGEMENTS

Two films on dance by Sandhya Kumar
The films will be introduced by Justin McCarthy, well-known Bharatanatyam dancer and Guru

The filmmaker Sandhya Kumar and  dancer-musician Justin McCarthy will initiate a discussion after the screenings

Light Falling on White Flowers (India)
(14 min; 2009; English)

Many years ago, a young girl was born with one dream – to trace back the sacred root of dance and restore it to the highest place in the arts. Isadora Duncan came to invent the ‘Modern Dance’. Where dwells this poetic spirit today.

O Friend, This Waiting! (India)
(32 min; 2012; Telugu & English with subtitles)

Could a song be full of love, and yet banal and trifling? Such were the padams of Kshetrayya. A wandering poet-musicians, Kshetrayya wrote for devadasis, the dancing courtesans at the courts of the 17th century Nayaka kings. His padams became the most cherished of her songs of love. O Friend, This Waiting! Reflects on the entwined fortunes of the padams and the women they were written for, from the 17th to the 20th century, while dwelling in the performance spaces of temples and courts of the Nayaka period.

Screening will be followed by a discussion with Justin McCarthy and Sandhya Kumar