A contemporary dance performance C. Tactile will be presented in Bengaluru. Conceptualised and choreographed by Shruti Maria Datar, a bombay-based independent artist, the performance aims to explore what it means to embody a female identity in a world where the male gaze shapes perceptions, Shruti says over the phone from Mumbai amidst her dance rehearsals.
“The dance invites audiences to witness the dancers use their bodies as canvases of resistance, vulnerability, and resilience, embracing the contradictions of touch as both an experience and an act of intervention.”
C. Tactile is a full-length contemporary duet, created with movement collaborator, Melitta Dsouza. Shruti will be joined on the stage by Nishashmita, and the duo will perform to pre-recorded music, an original composition by Adriel George.
The dance is produced by The Movement Arts Co, an initiative which functions across the three verticals through dance programs in schools, Viewpoint (a crowdfunded platform for emerging choreographers) and supporting the creation and showcase of artistic projects in Mumbai, explains Shruti, who has had her professional dance training in the contemporary genre from Danscentrumjette, Belgium.
A trained classical dancer (Bharatanatyam), Shruti, uses movement to explore themes of identity, culture and human emotion. Though she finds contemporary dance a form that gives her the freedom to explore movement and abstract concepts, she also believes Bharatanatyam has not restricted her.
“It has given me a strong foundation as Bharatanatyam involves gestures, hand and feet movements, abhinaya.”
When people think of contemporary dance, Shruti says, they strip the form off many of these classical attributes. “As I draw from my personal experiences, Bharatantayam is very much a part of that process. Hence, I include gestural and facial expression to my contemporary work as well.”
Shruti, who trained at Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, Bengaluru, adds that she trains her body in a rigorous manner. “So it moves in the way I want it to and conveys what I want it to, fluidly so every movement connects itself to my concept.”
Shruti’s choreographic work-in-progress, Phi was showcased at The Prakriti Excellence in Contemporary Dance awards 2016 and the dancer has also been featured in the Dance films series Moving Cities Brussels.
Her dance concepts are always abstract, Shruti says. “The beauty of contemporary dance is that the audience is free to perceive it according to their interpretations. I leave the interpretation to the audience as I do not believe in spoon feeding them with a clear narrative, but prefer them to extract what they connect to. This way, there is a scope for the audience to connect to the same concept on different levels.”
Her movement vocabulary, says the dancer, is based on her memories, identity and experiences of being a woman in a metro, navigating the world.
When creating C. Tactile, Shruti says she was drawn to the contradictions inherent in the act of touch. “It has the power to nurture and to wound, to connect and to isolate. The choreography emerged as an ongoing conversation between the dancers and the concept of embodiment. We explored the questions as to how the body responds to being seen, touched, or even anticipated as an object of touch.”
The dance, Shruti says covers all aspects of touch from a gender perspective, personal as well as from a larger socio-political perspective.
Dancers’ bodies, Shruti says, are not just performers, but are storytellers, canvases, and sites of transformation. “Through intricate patterns, moments of stillness, and explosive bursts of movement, they reveal the body as both a battleground and a sanctuary.”
C.Tactile will be presented at Medai-The Stage on April 11, 7pm. It is a ticketed show.
Published – April 10, 2025 09:53 am IST
