CUNY Dance Initiative to Present Jeevika Bhat In The World Premiere Of CLOTHESLINE

The CUNY Dance Initiative will present the world premiere of Clothesline by Jeevika Bhat on November 13 & 14 at 7:30pm at Aaron Davis Hall at City College. General admission is $20, with student and senior tickets available for $15. 

Choreographed by Jeevika Bhat, Clothesline is a contemporary Indian dance story, told from the perspective of a sari that is passed down through generations of Karnataka women. Exploring themes of home, heritage, and identity, the piece asks "how does culture fade with each wash?"

Bhat trained in the east Indian classical dance style Odissi, and she uses this as a basis for a contemporary choreographic mode that seeks to define the confluence of cultures through art.

"The notion that we are too American for our home country, yet too foreign for America, plagues many of my second-generation immigrant peers," says Bhat. "Deeply personal to my own lineage, Clothesline evokes a sense of homesickness, personifying the sari as a parallel to the immigrant experience."

Clothesline features a cast of eight South Asian dancers, one of whom plays the personified sari: Shalini Basu, Keshav Agiwal, Rutva Satish, Jeevika Bhat, Medha Morparia, Samanvita Kasthuri, Bhavana Channavajala, Divya Empranthiri. The score is comprised of Kannada folk music - bhavageethe (emotional songs) and janapadageethe (songs of the people).

Clothesline, which is co-presented by the CUNY Dance Initiative and the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts, has also received support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement Grant and the GALLIM Moving Artist Residency.

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