Queen-Size is a choreographed production by Mandeep Raikhy, a dancer and choreographer, based out of New Delhi. It is a response to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalises homosexuality. The non-linear work is a detailed study on the intimacy between two men. The work was triggered by filmmaker Nishit Saran’s article titled, ‘Why My Bedroom Habits Are Your Business’. Raikhy has created three full-length works, Inhabited Geometry (2010), A Male Ant Has Straight Antennae (2013) and Queen-Size (2016). Excerpts from a chat with Raikhy,, also the Managing Director of Gati Dance Forum:
When and why did you first start exploring gender and body through dance?
I started about four or five years ago, with a series of short films called Big Man, Little Drawing . I found gender an interesting starting point for making dance work. A Little Book On Men by Rahul Roy, which talked about how the male body was an embodied idea, influenced me. I also had my own struggle with gender. While growing up, I had a difficult relationship with what people thought boys should be doing and what I should do. That tension remained through my childhood.
How did the theme in turn influence your form?
The form has its own parallel journey. As a dancer, I wanted to question what dance vocabulary should look like and what it should be preoccupied with. I wanted to also challenge the vocabularies we work with, the aesthetic way we inherit from other art forms and how they get transmitted to us. Questions on the notions of beauty are embedded in dance more than in any other art form.
The performance, which runs for two-and-a-half hours, is non-linear. The audience can enter any time and stay for as long as they like...
I did not want to work with a narrative. Then, it becomes about just two bodies, rather than universal ideas of intimacy. I did not want the piece to be easily resolved like other performances, where people applaud in the end. The audience also becomes an active part, as they make choices when they want to enter, and how long they want to view. When we are talking about choice, we also need to make it available to the audience.
Could you tell us a bit about the context of the work...
Nishit was a dear friend. We were also seeing each other. He died in a car crash in 2002. Going back to the article was a way to have a conversation with him all over again. For him, private life has much potency in the public space. In his documentary, Summer in My Veins , he comes out to his mother on camera. It is a landmark film in the LGBT circle around the world. My production is a response to his spirit as an artiste and to the times we live in.
How has the feedback to Queen-Size been?
We showcased the work to teenagers in Kanchipuram at a rural setting. The conversations that happened around notions of gender and sexuality were fabulous. One of the kids said that it changed the way he thought about same-sex relationships. And, a whole lot of them hugged the two dancers. Their reaction was also non-verbal. But, you could see that they were moved enough to embody an acceptance.
Queen-Size will be performed at Spaces, Besant Nagar, on February 16 at 7 p.m. The show’s executive producer is Sandbox Collective and it is hosted by Anita Ratnam’s Arangham Trust.
