CHICAGO-The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago offers Chicago audiences a chance to see a contemporary spin on the classical South Indian dance form Kuchipudi when Shantala Shivalingappa makes her Chicago debut with her work Akasha this weekend, March 5-7, 2015 at The Dance Center, 1306 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. The Dance Center's presentation is in association with Eye On India.
Kupichudi incorporates pure dance, which is rhythmic and abstract, and expressive dance, which is more narrative and uses each part of the body to bring the text, poem or story to life. "Kuchipudi is a harmonious combination of these two aspects, alternating moments of pure dance, rhythmic, bright, vivacious, full of beauty and grace, and narrative moments based on the Hindu mythology, where the focus is on the use of gestures, facial expressions and body language," Shantala describes.Akasha (which means "space" or "sky" in Sanskrit) is danced solo by Shantala with four accompanying musicians from India: a vocalist, flutist and two percussionists. "It is said that that Akasha originates in sound, which is a vibration, or said another way, a form of energy and movement," Shantala writes. "This Space is manifested in various ways at different levels of perception. Starting from the space we perceive around us, the space which surrounds us, the space of the universe which contains everything we know (in Indian thought, this Space is the fifth element and completes the four-fold Air, Water, Fire, Earth), and ending in its subtlest form: that of Space beyond space-time."Videos