Sangam in 2023
Australia-India Labs (Adishakti/Puducherry and Melbourne) - Practice as Research
In collaboration with Insite Arts
Creative Team
Direction: Priya Srinivasan
The Labs expand the work Sangam started during the pandemic to forge strong relations between Indian organizations, venues, researchers, artists and connect them to colleagues of colour in Australia.
Including dialogues, debates, labs and residencies which involved artists and leaders from First Nations people in Australia to indigenous, tribal, rural and dalit communities in India, as well as academics, artists from urban backgrounds in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad. Most of these were conducted online due to the pandemic.
We had featured the concept of practice as research in how creatives make and think and dialogue about their work. We purpose to move this into face to face engagement starting in Bangalore to coincide with the opening of the Australian embassy there and move into hybrid formats for exchange. The key concept is to build soft power diplomacy through the arts to help bridge trade and business engagement between India and Australia.
Sangam labs 2023 part 1 will be held at Dancehouse between May 22-29 bringing together key artistic leaders from Sydney and Melbourne dealing with Dance, and Dance and Music/ Dance on Film/ Dance in Media. The labs will not only feature 6 South Asian leaders but also culminate in a day long event on May 28 that brings together conversations in the field between leading orgs and their leaders such as Chunky Move, Australian Ballet, MSO, in conversation with South Asian choreographers.
Sangam labs 2023 part 2 will take place in India as a beginning for future long term exchanges (subject to funding) the meeting will take place both online and in person.
Sangam - MSO “Mosaics” Collaboration at the Sydney Myer Bowl
Sangam and the MSO presented “Agam” in the second half of a free concert at the Sidney Myer Bowl
Agam brings 3 intertwined stories of Tamil Australians (past, present, and future) from migrants and refugees who come from colonial pasts to live and work on the unceded lands of the Kulin Nation. The works reveal themes of home and belonging, insiders and outsiders, and existing between many worlds. This performance from a non western perspective, imagines music as dance, visuals, history, politics, entertainment and powerful storytelling, all at once.
Agam in Tamil refers to the interior landscape. The MSO commission enables the exploration of interiority from a range of viewpoints bringing the mythological, ancient and the contemporary together. All the music has been created in collaboration with the very talented composer Alex Turley.
New Homes is a stunning Veena Concerto originally composed by Hari Sivanesan for an MSO-Sangam exchange in February 2022. The Veena is an ancient 7 stringed lute and this is the first time that a Concerto with a contemporary theme has been written for the instrument.
The theme inside the musical composition explores Sivanesan’s homeland of Sri Lanka, via oral interviews with individuals set to poetry, that explores the civil war, its aftermath and the creation of refugees and migrants who are unable or unwilling to return home.
The work also explores what it means to create new homes in South East Victoria, the newness, the learning , the struggles and hope; juxtaposing that against reminiscing the fragmented memories, the smells, tastes, the comforts and the fears of a home long gone and creating new homes.
Becoming brings an incredible visual and soundscape of contemporary dance, music and theatre from the perspective of a migrant girl child growing up in the turbulent suburbs of Melbourne trying to find a way to belong while being pulled between two cultures.
Her grandmother (paati) arrives in Melbourne and reminds her to look inward to find strength and to hold on to their ancestress, a female poet from the 8th century named Andal. Andal’s songs and poetry have been handed down from mother to daughter, grandmother to granddaughter for generations across the millennia. She is one of the only female “saints” of the ancient Vaishnavite traditions whose poetry remains with us today.
Becoming brings together ancient poetry written by Andal, with contemporary poetry and dance by Priya Srinivasan with powerful movement from classical and contemporary Indian dance traditions. It is set to beautiful music with haunting ragas by the renowned Carnatic vocalist and composer Uthra Vijay, with rhythmic structures created by percussionist/ mridangam maestro Sridhar Chari. The work explores new ways of understanding music from a non western context and ways of moving through fragmentation to becoming whole.
The Way Forward takes the powerful mythological character of Hanuman, known to be the figure of resistance, strength, innovation and love, as a force to reimagine our contemporary pluralistic society. He brings different fractured tribes of humans and creatures together and they build bridges.
Through episodes where he finds his inner strength, his flight across oceans, his tail being set on fire, his commitment to bringing tribes together, we are shown his interventions and his capacity to outcreate the realities he faces. He offers an example for us to look at the past as inspiration to find the way forward.
Taking 16th century lyrics, Hari Sivanesan’s composition traverses multiple genres; evocative bhajan, bhangra, r&b and classical genres, framed by a percussive mélange, to create a rich soundscape. Priya Srinivasan reimagines the story through the choreographed movements of Kalaripayattu, Sri Lankan Kandian dance, contemporary urban and classical Indian dance in a visually stunning experimental performance.
Copy of the Copy
Residency at Dancehouse Feb 18 – March 5
Private Showing and Panel at Dancehouse March 5
Priya Srinivasan in Collaboration with Danielle Micich (Force Majeure), Govin Ruben and Charulatha Mani.
The Copy of the Copy, performer Priya Srinivasan tells the stories of iconic dance figures from Martha Graham, Ruth St Denis, Anna Pavalova, Louise Lightfoot, Rukmini Devi - to highlight the impact of cultural appropriation and how this has led to the marginalisation of South Asian dance.
Muraliwala
In collaboration with ACMI, Federation Square & Insite Arts
Creative Team
Artistic Direction & Music Composition: Hari Sivanesan
Research, Script - Pankhuri Agarwal
Sound/Visual Dramaturgy - Vijay Thillainathan
Documentation: Ruiqi Fu
Ensemble :
Pirashanna Thevaraj
Lakshmi Kumaraguruparan
Ravi Madhawan
Subramanya Sastry
Chris Lewis
Bimal Singh Gabbi
Selene Messinis
A full length visual silent movie experience with a live soundscape newly composed contemporary-classical acoustic and digital soundscape by Hari Sivanesan.
This rare screening of Baburao Painter’s dynamic 1927 silent film featured over 7 tracks of the electrifying compositions played live by eclectic and brilliant creatives of Naarm; The work was presented in Fed Square on ACMI screens.
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