Review: BEEJA - EARTH SEED by Malavika Sarukkai at the Kennedy Center

Beeja - Earth Seed by Malavika Sarukkai is the latest dance offering as part of the Kennedy Center’s Earth to Space festival. Through bharatanatyam steps, soundscape, evocative lighting, narration, and live vocals and percussion, Sarukkai highlights how humans use - and often disregard - the earth. 

It’s really more of a theater piece, reminiscent of Mary Zimmerman in its mysterious air, though the work would have benefitted from a touch of humor or even sarcasm. At 75 minutes, the piece was too long to not explore a wider range of feelings. Sincerity and wonder were palpable, but neither kept my attention for the duration. 

The music by composer V. Rajkumar Bharati is truly beautiful; meditative, soaring and, in places, foreboding, and it provided a strong backdrop of Sarukkai’s concept and dancing. With exquisite posture she squatted deeply into the earth, made rhythms with her feet, and moved her hands nimbly to illustrate plucking, searching and other gestures. More so, her choreography responded to the music without mimicking it or its structure. While movement motifs returned, she cleverly put the steps together in new combinations and continually played with the largely 4/4 score’s phrasing and sections. 

The narration, while likely there to orient audiences, was the weakest link in my opinion, as it pulled me out of the world of deep observation every time it started up again. While I surely would have missed or misunderstood some of the narrative without it, it felt bombastic and phony, like it was written for a movie trailer. The mysterious moments were the most absorbing, a reminder of the pleasures of life on earth. 

Runtime is 75 minutes with no intermission.