InDance, Canada present "Exhalations", "...Owning Shadows" and "Bollywood Hopscotch" 
 

Inspired by a twelfth-century Sanskrit verse linking breath with movement, Exhalations is stark work created for 4 dancers. The work is a play on the dichotomies of in/out, strong/weak, resistance/flow. The work is performed to silence involving the breathing patterns and vocal rhythmic articulations of the dancers. 

Choreography/Soundscape: Hari Krishnan 
Dancers: Emily Cheung, Hiroshi Miyamoto and Emily Watts 
Original Lighting Design: Brad Trenamann 
Costume Design: Rex 
 

..owning shadows (2002)* 

....owning shadows is an abstract interpretation of one story from the epic Ramayana, in which the exiled young prince Rama and his wife Sita encounter the ogress Shurpanakha. Rather than a retelling of a myth, the work is an abstract tapestry of moods and feelings focusing on the complex aspects of these characters within each of us, working from a hybrid movement vocabulary, the work also features an eclectic music drawing from music traditions of Bali, Kerala and Tamil Nadu featuring several styles including Balinese dance, modern Bharatanatyam. Stripped of its linear mythology and traditional uses of costume, ...owning shadows and its interrogation of the Rama narrative explores emotions within. 

Choreography: Hari Krishnan  
Dancers:  Hiroshi Miyamoto and Emily Watts 
Music: Michel Smith 
Musicians:  Sheela Bharath (Karnatak Vocals), Katherine Duncanson (Voice/Spoken Text), Anandhi Narayanan (Rhythmic Vocals), Niu (Chinese Opera Vocals), Andrew Timar (Suling, Indonesian bamboo flute) 
Original Lighting Design: Arun Srinivasan 
Costume Design: Rex 
Text: Dr. Devesh Soneji 
Rehearsal Director: Beth Despree 
 

Bollywood Hopscotch (2004)* 

A light-hearted, whimsical and subversive take on Bollywood retro-culture as seen through the eyes of the Bollywood Diva who is simultaneously coy, vivacious, shy, tragic, melancholic, romantic, yet eternally happy. Seven dancers create snapshot vignettes from the Diva’s many lives. The work is the choreographer’s personal response to the aesthetic principles of hyper-exaggeration and melodrama.  It is also a comment on the increasingly homogenizing dialectic between today’s Indian classical dance and contemporary Indian cinema. Rooted in strong rhythmic modern Bharatanatyam dance, the satirical quality of the work is embedded in the hybrid physicality of the movement, the edgy juxtaposition of  “classical” and “film” dance, and the melodramatic facial and corporeal articulations, which provide for an eclectic palate of expressive possibilities.  

Choreography and Rhythmic Recitation: Hari Krishnan 
Dancers: Nalin Bisnath, Emily Cheung, Hiroshi Miyamoto and Emily Watts (from Canada), C A Joy, Dayalakshmi, Poornima Nayar (from Chennai) 
Sound Design: Debashis Sinha 
Original Lighting Design: Andrea Lundy 
Costume Design: Rex 
Mrdangam: Gowri Shankar 
Rhythmic section recorded at Wellesley Sounds 
Rehearsal Director: Masumi Sato 
 
Lights direction: Victor Paulraj 

Nalin Bisnath has been studying Bharatanatyam under the tutelage of Hari Krishnan since 1999. Nalin has been associated with inDANCE since 2002. Nalin has been training in Tambura playing under Thanathevy Mithratheva and has accompanied inDANCE's play (2002) as well as Srividya Natarajan (2003, Kacheri Attam Dance Series). Performance credits with inDANCE include Mixed Signals (2003 at the University of Waterloo), Bollywood Hopscotch  (2004 as part of Danceworks Mainstage Dance season), Deities Four (2004), the remount of play (2004), NorthSouth/West (2005 in collaboration with Chandam dance company), Mixed! (2005, Kitchener, Waterloo) and Purnima/Full Moon (2006 in Toronto and Connecticut).  Nalin is also inDANCE's rehearsal director. 

Emily Cheung graduated from York University with an honorary B.F.A. and B.Ed and is currebtly pursuing an MA in Dance.  She has received numerous awards including three Grand Prizes from the North American Chinese dance Competition. Performance credits with inDANCE include Bollywood Hopscotch and Exhalations (2004 as part of Danceworks Mainstage Dance season), Deities Four (2004), the remount of play (2005 as part of the Can-Asian Dance Festival), NorthSouth/West (2005 in collaboration with Chandam dance company), Mixed! (2005, Kitchener, Waterloo) and Purnima/Full Moon (2006 in Toronto and Connecticut).  Emily is also the associate artistic director of the Little Pear Garden Collective where she actively promotes and performs Asian dances in Toronto. 

Toronto-based Hari Krishnan is a dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance scholar. He works in a contemporary vein abstracting and drawing elements from a variety of sources and sensibilities. Hari Krishnan's creative output is holistic, combining the allied arts of Bharatanatyam dance, music, theatre and theory with contemporary, urban, post-modern culture.  Trained by hereditary dance masters including K.P. Kittappa Pillai and R. Muttukkannammal, Krishnan received his M.A. degree in Dance from York University. Artistic director of Toronto-based inDANCE (www.indance.ca), Krishnan is also a World Dance Artist in Residence at the Department of Dance in Wesleyan University (Connecticut, USA). His experimental and vintage choreographies continue to be performed at international venues. For close to a decade, Krishnan has been involved with the documentation, translation and analysis of the last vestiges of hereditary systems of dance in South India.  His research brings together several interpretive and theoretical approaches, as it integrates the disciplines of performance studies, anthropology, history, and gender studies. Krishnan is currently working with Canadian dance legend Margie Gillis, who is creating a solo for him that will premiere in 2007. 

Hiroshi Miyamoto was born in Japan. After completing his bachelor of law degree from Hosei University in Tokyo, he moved to Canada to study dance. He is a co-founder and member of GreenTea- a collective of Japanese dancers in Toronto. He is also a collective member of 3M Dances. As a dancer, he has worked professionally with many choreographers in Toronto. Performance credits with inDANCE include Mixed Signals (2003 at the University of Waterloo), Bollywood Hopscotch and Exhalations  (2004 as part of Danceworks Mainstage Dance season), Deities Four (2004), the remount of play (2005 as part of the Can-Asian Dance Festival), NorthSouth/West (2005 in collaboration with Chandam dance company), Mixed! (2005, Kitchener, Waterloo) and Purnima/Full Moon (2006 in Toronto and Connecticut).  Hiroshi is also inDANCE's rehearsal director. 

Emily Watts began her training in ballet with former Joffrey dancers Robert Thomas and Miyoko Kato. A graduate of Wesleyan University's dance program, she has trained in Bharatanatyam, West African, ballet, release technique, and flamenco. She has performed with Iowa Dance Theater, Greg Neuman and the Neuman Dance Project, Hari Krishnan and inDANCE, and Adair Landborn. Emily had learnt Bharatanatyam dance with Hari Krishnan at Wesleyan University. She has performed in Krishnan's choreography including 3 Blind (2002), black and white in COLOR (2003), Pulse (2003), Exhalations (2004) and Bollywood Hospcotch (2004 as part of Danceworks Mainstage Dance season and 2005 for the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival). She currently lives and dances in New York City.

C A Joy holds a diploma in dance from Kalakshetra, Chennai. He has performed lead roles in their productions. He has performed widely within India and abroad. He has toured with various dance productions such as Jungle book which was a collaborated work with Ohio- USA ballet company, Abhyaasa, Living Tree, Silappadikaaram with Cleveland Cultural Alliance-USA and Shin Gigaku with a Japanese company. He has had the privilege of performing for the late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II in the Vatican City, Rome, with his company Avigna Dance Ensemble, of which he’s a principal dancer. He has also ventured into movies through acting and choreographing song sequences. The recent one was for a Telugu movie ‘Pournami’ directed by Prabhu Deva. With his own label JOY in Chennai, he is an established fashion designer who has created and designed costumes for traditional and contemporary productions of various organizations, as well as for movies.

Dayalakshmi trained in Bharatanatyam under the Dhananjayans and then Shobana Bhalchandra. She has performed all over India and has taught Bharatanatyam at Chennai and Ahmedabad. She has attended workshops conducted by contemporary dancers from India and abroad. She has also contributed in the choreography of some of the productions she has performed in. Dayalakshmi is trained in Kalaripayattu, the martial art form of Kerala and is also a trained mountaineer, which is an offshoot of her passion for adventure.

Poornima Nayar is a disciple of Bharatanatyam dancer Shobana Bhalchandra, youngest of the Trio Sisters. She has performed with her guru as part of the ensemble in many dance festivals and sabha programs. In Jan 2003, she was selected by the STAR TV Group to represent the country to give a classical dance performance in Tokyo, for their Group Corporate Meet. Poornima is also a proficient Mohiniattam dancer, trained under Kala Vijayan.