This dance performance sheds light on the use-and-throw culture of consumption

A show with dance, movement and theatrical interaction with the audience aims to inspire a change in wasteful consumption patterns

A decade ago, Paramita Saha, worked on a project that posed the question, ‘How can art be a tool and a starting point for dialogue around the environment?’ that drove Saha’s career. Tomorrow Detritus, a dance performance directed by Saha that highlights our use and throw culture of consumption, travels to Mumbai for its city debut after 11 performances in Kolkata and Delhi. The multi-format piece is choreographed by Surjit Nongmeikapam and Prashant More, with dramaturge Diya Naidu and music by Karshni Nair.

Saha explains about the theme, as the show’s tagline mentions — We are what we throw away, “Waste is often things that we don’t use or we can’t use. If we can’t use it, why did we have it in the first place? We use part of what we get, for instance, a bread packet. We use the bread and the plastic packet is left behind. Are we thinking of what is left after use and where that is going?” Saha reminds us that there is another parallel world outside of us that requires our consideration. “This hybrid way of looking at the world is something that we have lost.”

S Nongmeikapam, Paramita Saha and Prashant More

With a show performed by six dancers, the development of this piece itself is an interesting reflection of its anthropocentric theme. Was translating this into a performance of movement and theatrical interaction with the audience a tough task? Saha and choreographers Nongmeikapam and More agree. More describes it as both challenging and rewarding as the piece evolved with different artistic inputs while Nongmeikapam spotlights the collaboration with materials like sand and fishing nets to incorporate a oneness between humans and their surroundings, calling it an intimacy of movement. “We probably needed so many people to come together to make a complex subject visible in a simple way. Because the point was to make a piece that could ask vital questions and use the body to find a language to speak to the audience,” Saha adds.

Before the artistes stepped into the studio, the process of research and discovery on the performance’s theme began with workshops to understand our environment and consumption patterns. She adds that the bigger reward is to see audiences begin their journeys of making conscious choices.

The show was first conceptualised within Kolkata’s Experimenter Gallery keeping in mind its spatial design which is L-shaped. It will be interesting to see how the artistes adapt the show to G5A’s cubic space. Saha tells us that the changes account for the piece being surrounded by the audience at the same level which is a nifty way of including the audience in the piece. As More concludes, “A topic like this feels far [from our reality] even though it’s not. We tried to convey the message in a simple and direct manner.”

On: February 16; 7 pm and 9 pm 
At: G5A Warehouse, Laxmi Mills Estate, Mahalaxmi
Log on to: g5afoundation.org
Cost: Rs 499

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