Ganesh Vasudeva and Dancers
Life of Pi: A Bharatanatyam Dance Concert based on Yann Martel’s Novel
Life of Pi can be recognised as a tale that dives deep into the self, understanding faith and religion not as a dividing space but rather as a unifying and emboldening vehicle. Based on Yann Martel's best selling story, explore this beautiful tale full of imagery brought to the stage with choreography by Ganesh Vasudeva
AUDIENCE COMMENTS
|
|
|
Review from Marina Harss, a writer for the New York Times:
"This year I was only able to catch the final performance of Navatman's Drive East festival of Indian dance and music, now in its tenth season. I was lucky to see Ganesh Vasudeva's bharatanatyam adaptation of Yann Martel’s book “Life of Pi.” I loved the film made from the book, and wondered how the San Francisco-based Vasudeva and his four dancers would translate this fantastical story into dance. It turns out, marvelously well. Vasudeva breaks the story down into legible sections, using bits of text to set up each scene. He plays Pi, the protagonist, a boy born in a zoo run by his parents in Pondicherry, then shipwrecked, forced to cross the ocean on a small boat with a Bengal tiger. Meanwhile his four female dancers play everything else: Pi’s tormentors at school, the animals in the zoo (I especially loved the orangutang), the sharks that threaten his boat, the boat itself (a wonderful image, above), and, most importantly his travel companion Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger. Navya Konda, a dancer with a fantastic jump and a vivid, cat-like expression, plays the tiger. Vasuveda’s style is fleet, light, sharp, and intensely rhythmic. There are moments of intense virtuosity, as when he spins on his knees, becoming a blur. The scene in which Parker attacks the boy again and again, until finally the two settle into a truce, is as vivid and exciting as anything book or movie. (It would also make a great children's entertainment.)"
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
|
Ganesh Vasudeva
Ganesh Vasudeva has been training in Bharatanatyam for more than 25 years. He trained under-able Gurus such as Bragha Bessel and Guru A. Lakshman. In the past few years Ganesh has choreographed and presented his own work to critical acclaim. Ganesh has also been researching male-oriented compositions that are suitable to present on stage and has choreographed & presented several works based on this research. |
|