A glass box, which serves as a make-shift stage, displays digital patterns. The audience, at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, is seated around it, soaking in reflections from the screen.
The performer, Priyabrata Panigrahi, clad in white, walks into the box with poise. He sways to the pulsating music. Sometimes, the sounds are jarring; visual patterns ripple violently on the glass screen. At other moments, it instils a sense of bliss, as Panigrahi slows down his movements, curls his arms and legs and shuts his eyes in concentration.
Hakanai is considered an iconic production in contemporary French dance theatre. Devised by Adrien M & Claire B Company, a French theatre company specialising in physical-digital performance, it blends technology and art in interesting ways.
The performance was recreated in the city by Virginie Barjonnet, a contemporary dancer and founder of Dynamo dance academy.
A ballet dancer, Barjonnet encountered Hakanai in 2015 for the first time as part of her quest for pushing boundaries in her art form. And, she was captivated.
“Hakanai is a Japanese word that means ‘appear and disappear in a very short time’, like watching dreams. That is the basic concept of the production,” she says, adding that she went on to perform the piece herself. “I was inside that box. To perform in that space is meditative. It is a peaceful, quiet and pleasant experience.”
This time, she says the experience was different, since she watched it being performed by someone else. So, she experienced it differently, watching the work from outside the box.
She says Panigrahi was a great fit for the piece. Trained at Attakkalari Centre for Performing Arts, Bengaluru, he says he is used to this kind of work.
“I was not trained in any classical dance forms. My background is in contemporary dance. I was 19 when I joined Attakkalari. I had international artistes and trainers who taught me to approach movement without the baggage of my cultural background. Getting trained in contemporary dance for two years in Europe also helped.” Panigrahi performed in Chennai last at The Hindu Theatre Fest in Atul Kumar’s Khwaab-Sa .
While Khwaab-Sa demanded aggressive movement, Hakanai needed him to slow down.
“I had to be like a method actor and respond to the space inside the box, the lighting and music. Barjonnet kept telling me to relax. My body language was different in this work. It taught me ways to open up my body.”
On the surface it seemed like Panigrahi’s movements were constrained. So much so that they curtailed him from exploring the space.
But, maybe that was the intention, along with conveying what almost felt like a sense of claustrophobia. Either way, one couldn’t help but marvel at the aesthetics of the performance.
The piece is a conversation between light, music and the performer’s body, just as the creators of this choreography intended. The beauty of it all was encapsulated particularly in one moment during the performance, when the patterns took the shape of rain drops, accompanied by mellow music, and the performer relaxed, as if he felt at home.
There was constant interaction between the performer and the glass walls, which were also touch sensitive. As the show ended, the audience was given a chance to walk into the box. Adults and children alike were visibly excited to explore the unusual space.
The glass box, with intricate patterns, sometimes resembling letters and at other times heartbeats, is to be treated as a separate performance installation. Although the performance is not woven around a set narrative, the patterns offer a vocabulary of their own, says Barjonnet.
“In theatre, technology comes after the movement or lights. It is treated as an additional component. However, in this production, technology comes first and dance follows. The central art here is the technology created by the light engineer and the technical designer. They open their digital art with dance.”
Hakanai was brought to the city as part of the Bonjour India project by Prakriti Foundation in association with Alliance Française of Madras.
It is set to tour Hyderabad, New Delhi and Kolkata.
