With an Indian classical dance background, my first experience with another way of dancing was my work with Pina Bausch. My meeting with her was one of the most powerful in my whole career, both in human and in artistic terms. With her immense talent, sensitivity and generosity, she opened up for me the door to a new gestural universe. With her and her dancers, I learnt to think and to feel movement differently, from its design through to its execution: spontaneity, freedom and rigour, fluidity, movement flowing from the body but also from the heart.

There is an apparent contrast between Amagatsu’s universe, fabricated with slowness, sketches and abstraction, and that of Indian dance, rhythmic and rapid, ornamented and narrative. However, both practices meet in their end goal: the light given off and the intensity of emotion. 

The project is thus the result of an evening spent around two solis worked on with these two choreographers whom I admire and whose choreographic universe, extremely personal and special, touches me and finds a resonance in my artistic sensibility. 

Their work had a magnetic effect on me and rekindled my desire to explore the movement and the emotion given off. 

I was truly won over by the idea of working with these choreographers on the basis of my Indian classical dance gestures and technique, believing in the universality of dance and the movement and emotion they provoke, with no need for a shared technical language.

Based on the pure technique of Indian dance, will we travel towards another form of narrative, another way of experiencing and feeling dance? Or is the Rasa, the flavour which emanates from dance, not as different as the apparent contrast of forms would lead us to believe? 

Mirroring my fascination for Kuchipudi art, my desire to take this path to explore dance is also extremely intense. Along this path, nothing can be compared to the exceptional privilege of working with these great artists and of embodying the link uniting them for the space of one evening.

Source: Shantala Shivalingappa

Born in Madras, India, brought up in Paris, Shantala is the child of east and west.

She grew up in a world filled with dance and music, initiated at a tender age by her mother, dancer Savitry Nair. Deeply moved and inspired by Master Vempati Chinna Satyam’s pure and graceful style, Shantala dedicated herself to Kuchipudi, and received an intense and rigorous training from her master.

Driven by a deep desire to bring Kuchipudi to the western audience, she has performed in important festivals and theatres, earning praise and admiration from all.

Acclaimed as a rare dancer by artists and connoisseurs in India and Europe, Shantala combines a perfect technique with flowing grace and a very fine sensitivity. Since the age of 13, she also had the privilege of working with some of the greatest artists of our times: Maurice Béjart (“1789…et nous”), Peter Brook (for whom she played Miranda in “The Tempest” and Ophelia in “Hamlet”), Bartabas (“Chimère”), Pina Bausch (“O Dido”, “Néfès”, and “Bamboo Blues), Amagatsu (“Ibuki”). Such experiences make her artistic journey a truly unique one.

Today, Shantala shares her time between touring, expanding her choreographic work in the Kuchipudi style, and collaborating with various artists in the exploration of dance, music and theatre.

Some of these collaborations are: “Play” (2010), a duet with dancer-choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, “Nineteen Mantras” (2012), a modern opera inspired by hindu myths, directed by Giorgio Barberi Corsetti and for which Shantala created the choreography; “Peer Gynt”  (2012) directed by Irina Brook for the Salzburg Festival, in which Shantala was acting, dancing, and singing.

In 2013, Shantala was awarded the prestigious “Bessie” dance award in New York City for Shiva Ganga, for Outstanding Performance.

In 2014, she performed in “AM I”, the latest piece by Sydney-based “Shaun Parker & Company” at the Sydney Opera House, with a cast of 13 Australian dancers and musicians.

She also created “Blooming” at the Vail International Dance Festival, a short duet with Charles ‘Lil Buck’ Riley, a wizard in jookin’, a street-dance style from Memphis, Tennessee.

Her latest collaborations have both been in Barcelona and closely weaving together movement and music. First Impro-Sharana, with the Catalan singer Ferran Savall, and four of his musical accomplices, and most recently, « We Women » with Sol Pico, Julie Dossavi and Minako Seki.

Source : Shantala Shivalingappa Company 's website

More information : shantalashivalingappa.com

Author, filmmaker and video artist Charles Picq (1952-2012) entered working life in the 70s through theatre and photography. A- fter resuming his studies (Maîtrise de Linguistique - Lyon ii, Maîtrise des sciences et Techniques de la Communication - grenoble iii), he then focused on video, first in the field of fine arts at the espace Lyonnais d'art Contemporain (ELAC) and with the group « Frigo », and then in dance.
   On creation of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon in 1980, he was asked to undertake a video documentation project that he has continued ever since. During the ‘80s, a decade marked in France by the explosion of contemporary dance and the development of video, he met numerous artists such as andy Degroat, Dominique Bagouet, Carolyn Carlson, régine Chopinot, susanne Linke, Joëlle Bouvier and regis Obadia, Michel Kelemenis. He worked in the creative field with installations and on-stage video, as well as in television with recorded shows, entertainment and documentaries.

His work with Dominique Bagouet (80-90) was a unique encounter. He documents his creativity, assisting with Le Crawl de Lucien and co-directing with his films Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux and 10 anges. in the 90s he became director of video development for the Maison de la Danse and worked, with the support of guy Darmet and his team, in the growing space of theatre video through several initiatives:
       - He founded a video library of dance films with free public access. This was a first for France. Continuing the video documentation of theatre performances, he organised their management and storage.
       - He promoted the creation of a video-bar and projection room, both dedicated to welcoming school pupils.
       - He started «présentations de saisons» in pictures.
       - He oversaw the DVD publication of Le tour du monde en 80 danses, a pocket video library produced by the Maison de la Danse for the educational sector.

       - He launched the series “scènes d'écran” for television and online. He undertook the video library's digital conversion and created Numeridanse.

His main documentaries are: enchaînement, Planète Bagouet, Montpellier le saut de l'ange, Carolyn Carlson, a woman of many faces, grand ecart, Mama africa, C'est pas facile, Lyon, le pas de deux d'une ville, Le Défilé, Un rêve de cirque.

He has also produced theatre films: Song, Vu d'ici (Carolyn Carlson), Tant Mieux, Tant Mieux, 10 anges, Necesito and So schnell, (Dominique Bagouet), Im bade wannen, Flut and Wandelung (Susanne Linke), Le Cabaret Latin (Karine Saporta), La danse du temps (Régine Chopinot), Nuit Blanche (Abou Lagraa), Le Témoin (Claude Brumachon), Corps est graphique (Käfig), Seule et WMD (Françoise et Dominique Dupuy), La Veillée des abysses (James Thiérrée), Agwa (Mourad Merzouki), Fuenteovejuna (Antonio Gades), Blue Lady revistied (Carolyn Carlson).

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon