Bharatanatyam production conceived, choreographed and performed by Rama Vaidyanathan, drawing on the poetry of medieval saint-poets Janabai and Lalleshwari.
Rama Vaidyanathan brings MAD and DIVINE to MATCHBox 4 on Saturday, October 31, a Bharatanatyam production she conceived, choreographed, and performs herself. It's presented by Indian Performing Arts Samskriti, and the whole thing runs 90 minutes without an intermission.
The show centers on the poetry of two medieval women saint-poets who lived centuries and thousands of miles apart. One is Janabai, a 13th-century Marathi saint; the other is Lalleshwari, the 14th-century Kashmiri poet known as Lal Ded. Both defied the social and religious constraints of their eras, and the production puts their voices side by side. Vaidyanathan contrasts Janabai's intimate, personified love for the Divine with Lal Ded's more abstract, introspective wisdom, and she works through both using the expressive vocabulary of classical Bharatanatyam—abhinaya, the art of facial expression, and dynamic movement.
That choreography translates spiritual intoxication, philosophical inquiry, and divine fervor into dance, set to original musical scores that bring in live vocals, percussion, and melodic instruments. It's a production that moves from the personal to the philosophical, and it's all handled by one dancer.
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Tickets are $20 to $50 for reserved seating, and students and seniors with a valid ID can save $5 with the code RVS. Lap children age 3 and under are free. The performance is at 4 PM on Saturday, October 31, at MATCHBox 4 (MATCH), 3400 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002. There's no intermission and no late seating, so you'll want to be in your seat before it starts. Tickets are sold through the MATCH Box Office only.
