She’s not only got an unusual name but also has offbeat tastes when it comes to her dance vocabulary. Meet dancer, choreographer Avril Stormy Unger. Born in Mangalore, Avril came to Bengaluru “10 years ago” to study fashion designing. “I found it boring and could not get myself to finish the course. Instead I joined the Natya Institute of Kathak and Choreography. I am influenced by music and initially started off with Bharatanataya. I kept changing teachers but didn’t learn it the way I was supposed to. However, with my late teacher Maya Rao, it was different. With her I learnt Kathak, choreography, thangta, Chau and so on. I am still influenced by her style and teaching. So, I started a dance company called The Storm Factory, which offers a platform for experiential and experimental dance. All my movements are completely dependent on music. My dance does not have a specific genre, but moves between classical, hip hop, folk dance and martial arts forms. I can say that I have created my own movement language,” explains Avril.
She likes to collaborate with other dancers and her work includes her singing and dancing with a lot of visual media. “You can not separate the art from music or visual arts. The effect when you bring in all these elements together is dramatic,” says Avril, who loves to perform on the streets.
She was a part of an experimental work by Jaaga where “we created some dance activity under the Double Road flyover. We danced to the noise of the city and traffic. I went in and out of the traffic and also used the space under the flyover for my dance. I can dance anywhere between 15 minutes to hours on the streets. What drives me is the real reaction by real people.”
Now Avril is off to Krakow, Poland for an underground music festival called Unsound. “The concept is to use old abandoned buildings and cathedrals as my work space and create dance movements. It’s a music fest and I am the only dancer chosen from India to present my work,” beams the 24-year-old dancer.
She will present pieces from her work called Only Time Will Tell series, which will last between “six to 10 hours”. She has choreographed the moves to music by Jlin, an electronic music producer and visual and light artist Florence.
