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Sapphire Annual Gala is Back!!!!
It’s been a year of ordeal, endurance, patience and resilience for all of us. This litmus test for artists in particular for 2020 has been grilling but Sapphire withstood all and remained firm, active and productive in the pandemic year.
On one hand it engaged the dancers in the process of creation and performance with its initiative DANCE VIVID (Dancing Vividly in Covid Times ) creating 13 new short pieces from August to December. On the other hand we also tried to support other artists, backstage people , puppeteers and the likes through small donations to motivate them to continue their art practices.
SAPPHIRE QUARTERLY ARTS SERIES with its 40th edition on 30th March at Gyan Manch at 7PM onward with REVIVAL.Its a 70 minutes dance presentation with MORE THAN 50 DANCERS from age four to forty celebrating the innermost joy that we derive as an artist and as a human being from the liberation and hope that 2021 represents for all of us!!!
Sapphire would present FOUR NEW CHOREOGRAPHIC WORK directed by a team of talented choreographers/teachers.
Kitesong: Young children trapped in their homes with adults away from play, community, and friends; suddenly imposters on their parents’ time and attention; locked in and left out of everything familiar. Now ready to release themselves from that atmosphere of mistrust and confusion, fly like a kite in resplendent colours, singing a song of liberty.
Choreography: Bijoy Sharma
The Hand that Feeds: As tens of thousands of farmers in India drive tractors in protest, suffering first in biting cold and now in searing heat, it is time to think a little about these hands that feed us. How would it feel to be in a country with no farmers and no agriculture ! The magic of being able to grow your food, till the land and nurture it, love it and feed on the love it gives back as crops. This piece performs a tribute to the farmers and their historic and ongoing struggles.
Choreography: Bijoy Sharma
Anila: Invisible and yet inevitable to miss. It surrounds us and resides within us. It is our breath, our prana, the vata that keeps us alive and flows inside us. Anila is an abstract experimental piece about vayu or wind. And the important role it plays in our existence. Movement created by the dancers depict their interpretations of the wind that surrounds them and flows within them, about how the breath helps them to move and emote.
Choreography: Sylvester Mardi
Face Off: Covid 19 got masks to our lives, flimsy detachables now defining who we are. But there are masks within masks and faces under them. Faces that are a canvas of thoughts, emotions, questions, suffering, pain, disgust; faces with expressions disguised as something else, and now wearing masks over them. Faces not to be trusted, intentions unknown, agendas hidden, secrets masked in information, wisdom lost in propaganda. This piece raises a voice from the core of our being, questioning the normalised hypocrisies; when existence becomes political it is time to resist. Using the rebel idiom of hip hop and its disruptive energies, this piece packs a punch.
Choreography: Pintu Das
Mentor Sudarshan Chakravorty Says,
“We as a dance company have faced many obstacles and I feel pandemic was just one of them but in Sapphire we tried not to pause but paced up our activities, outreach and creations in last one year and opened up opportunities for our dancers and teachers to remain the process of creation and performance which takes the final outcome this evening as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Sapphire Arts Quarterly with its 40th Edition through REVIVAL highlighting the voices of artists, farmers and children through our work who has been chiefly adversely affected by the pandemic but is not heard out. This evening is a tribute to all those energies which we always took for granted but have realized their importance this year to keep us moving!”
