Mooki, the kannada word for mute is the title of the piece that is inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's short story Subha. The story revolves around a dumb girl who is ironically named Subhashini (which in sanskrit means one with the ability to speak beautifully). This dynamics in the story is used as a metaphor in the piece to address the idea of freedom of speech that democracy claims to bestow upon its citizens in this country.
The movement vocabulary explores sign language and is also inspired by entities like trees, animals and humans that are not bestowed with the ability to speak. It looks at how language creates hierarchy within the framework of society with freedom of expression often being reserved to those with power. It looks at how the voice of those communities that are often misinterpreted , translated or seldom heard are often categorized as being marginalized. The piece draws from the experiences of the performers themselves and primarily focuses on how we have all endured discrimination based on gender and sexuality in silence.
Brief Note About the Troupe
Mooki is devised and performed by Independent artists of Bangalore. We are a collective of individuals with experiences ranging from Classical music, Engineering, Theater, Ecology, Wildlife Rehabilitation and Dance. We strongly believe in sharing the authorship of the work amidst all the collaborators. We are an open group inviting people to create interesting work in a convivial space. We have earlier worked on a Movement Installation titled H2Zero (2010) at The National Gallery of Modern Art as part of the Carte Blanche initiative and we are currently developing 'Mooki', a dance theatre production since December 2012. The performers of the project have devised this piece and the work finds its intensity and emotion as the collaborators weave their personal experiences in their respective languages and incorporate their memories and expertise into the art work. The performers interpret the story of Subha written by Rabindranath Tagore using spoken text, sign language and movement. The sound scape also comprises of silence, live drums and vocals.
Mooki - Collaborators
Brief note about the Collaborators
COLLABORATORS C
Purnima.A.Kumar
is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer from Shankarananda Kalakshetra,
Hyderabad. She has performed extensively in solo and group
productions, in India and abroad.She has also been trained in
carnatic music by T.T Sita, her grandmother - a renowed carnatic
musician. She works in Business Development for a solar energy social
enterprise in Bangalore.
Akhshay
Gandhi is a theater artist, exploring different aspects of
performance craft. His theatre training includes, Theatre making
program at Indian Ensemble Theatre, bangalore and Theatre
Professionals, Mumbai & Performance Craft at Adishakti,
Pondicherry. As the artistic director of watercolorsky theatre, he
has directed a full-length play and few informal short theater works.
Abhisheka
Krishnagopal is a trained Visual Artist (specialized in painting)
and an Ecologist. She is trained in the classical form of
Bharatanatyam. She uses her experience in the field ecolgoy and the
medium of art to teach children about nature conservation. With over
10 years experience in wildlife rehabilitation, she has been treating
and caring for wildlife in Urban areas.
A.N.Vinay
Kumar is an engineer who is also passionate about theatre. Vinay
Kumar, during his 7 years stint with theater has enacted in many
plays with Rangashankara, OurTheater, Watercolorsky and Wemove
Theater. He has also been part of Indian Ensemble Training program
led by Abhishek Majumdar and Sandeep Shikar for over 2 years. He has
also attended the Adishakti basic and advanced workshop.
Ravishankar.B.T
is an engineer in the space
astronomy field working at the Indian Space Research Organisation. He
is a student of Odissi dance and has been testing the waters at yoga,
theatre, birding, photography and recently Kalaripayattu.
Shreekanth
Rao is a software engineer with a
keen interest in theatre. He has
received theatre training from Bangalore Little Theatre and also
Indian Ensemble.He has trained in Carnatic classical instrumental
music on the Veena, and in Kalaripayattu at the Kalari Academy of
Performing Arts, Bangalore. He He has
trained in Devising Theatre and Performance at the London
International School of Performing Arts (LISPA) has
performed both in Bangalore and the UK
Platform One- National Gallery of Modern Art – January 2013 Bangalore Queer Film Festival – Alliance Francaise – February 2013 Manosrujana- A conference for psychology students at Jain College – April 2013 Attagalata – Bangalore – July 2013 Arts Village – Valley School – September 2013
Our Sacred Space ( Secundarabad ) - December 2013
Lamakaan ( Hyderabad ) -December 2013
Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore, Chennai - January -2014
Adishakthi - July 2014
Special thanks to TLFCB, Kalari Academy of Performing Arts & Krishnagopal & family
