Publicity material The poster for the event [Also, the event brochure (80KB PDF) and the email announcement]

The Asha Stall

The Performance

After the Performance

River Rites is a dance drama that celebrates the current struggles of thousands of people to halt the building of big dams on the Narmada River in Gujarat, India. The uprooting of millions of people is happening not only in the Narmada valley but all over the world. This dance drama is dedicated to the people of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement, www.narmada.org). Interweaving Bharatnatyam (Indian classical dance), Indian folk dance, and yoga, River Rites depicts the people's resistance, particularly the activism of women in the movement. Using images of folk arts, this drama depicts the Narmada as a symbol of people who live in harmony with nature. The static line formations in Rangoli, a traditional form of painting on the floor with colors, have become the inspiration for dance movements. Another traditional art form drawn upon in River Rites is Kolata, where dancers create rhythm while dancing with sticks.

Aparna Sindhoor, who hails from Mysore in India and now lives in the United States, is an accomplished choreographer and dancer trained in Bharathanatyam (one of the classical dance forms) for over 20 years. Aparna started her dance training at a young age with her mother, Dr Srivalli T. S. The talented 11-year-old Aparna was spotted by Dr K. VenkataLakshamma, one of the foremost proponents of the Mysore style of Bharathanatyam where Abhinaya (facial expression) and graceful Jathis (pure dance compositions) are emphasized. Since her arangetram (graduation solo recital) in 1989, Aparna has performed widely in India, North America and Germany. Currently, Aparna is the artistic director of the Navarasa Arts Academy in Boston, where she also teaches Bharathanatyam.

Aparna has conceived and choreographed 15 full-length dance works. In some of her works (A Concise Portrait of Indian Woman and Vachanadara), she has expanded the limits of the traditional Bharatanatyam recital in terms of the subject, style and production by using regional folk dance as part of the choreography. Since 1996, Aparna has been working on stories (The Incident and After, The Hunt, Clothes, Draupadi, River Rites) written by people of color. She uses Indian classical dance, yoga and folk dances to tell contemporary stories of significance and relevance. She has created a new style of performing using song, dance and narration giving a new dimension to the content of the performance. This has made her work more interesting and accessible to diverse audiences.

Aparna Sindhoor's choreography is "hauntingly effective", a body of work that "conveys boldly dramatic stories". Another critic raved: "Aparna Sindhoor does not just dance. She becomes one with the stage". MS Magazine states in their June/July 2001 issue: "Choreographers often bring their passions and outrages to the stage. Aparna Sindhoor takes it a step further- she brings the stage to others..."

Raju Sivasankaran is a playwright, poet, actor and dancer; and a computer scientist. Three of his plays have won the James Baldwin Playwright Award. His poems have been published in Blue Collar Review. He has worked with Aparna Sindhoor as a co-director and script writer for the past 4 years.

Rosemary Candelario has been dancing for as long as she can remember. She studied ballet for over 18 years before switching to Modern dance. In addition to performing with Aparna Sindhoor, she has performed with Brian Crabtree, Kelley Donovan and Dancers, Hillary Ross and Abydos.

Sharmila Gopinathan started dancing since age 4 and learnt Bharathanatyam with Mr. V. Krishnakumar and Ms Chandrakala. In 1987 she did her arangetram with late Guru Kalaimamani Shree Shanmugha Sunderam Pillai, recipient of the Kalaimamani award. She has explored various other dance forms such as Kuchipudi, tap, jazz, West African, ballroom and Latin styles, Mexican Ballet Folklorico and Kathak.

Bindu Panikkar has worked with many theatre and telecast productions in Kerala, India. She has worked with Hyphen Communications in the concept-ualization, production and pos- production duties of social documentaries,commercials, and television productions, featured in Doordarshan (an Indian national television network) and Asianet (an Indian cable television network). She has also assisted in set designing and lighting at the Little Theatre.

Christian Willauer is active and promotes community based peace activities and participates in the Navarasa Dance Theater in stage management, lighting and sound.

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