As of: February 22, 2024, 3:19 p.m
By: Susanne Greiner
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Unique 'breathing movements': Ensemble members of the Navdhara India Dance Theater in the Landsberg City Theater.
© Greiner
A dispute between creation and destruction, between leading and obeying.
And that from dancers, some of whom themselves become flames.
The Navdhara India Dance Theater presents succinct images, movements and moods with “Agni” – the Vedic god of fire.
A concept that may not be easily accessible to Western Europeans.
However, the company succeeds in allowing the audience to experience the energy of the dance through intuitive feeling.
Landsberg - Agni is a symbol of opposites: light and shadow, becoming and passing away.
And for passion, which in turn can destroy and create anew.
This can be seen in dance through the fragmented lighting of the stage, which only partially lifts the dancers out of the shadows in the chiaroscuro.
Becoming and passing away are a unity - represented by dancers who 'move' others with a stick, but are also 'moved' by them.
In addition, there is the contrast between the individual and the crowd - between Agni, the lord of the fire, and the fire itself, represented by partly synchronous passages from the ensemble, from which individual 'flames' repeatedly erupt.
Special connection between acoustics and movement
There are cracks between the seething - passages in which the dancers become machines, supported by a monotonous clicking sound.
Overall, in Ashley Lobo's choreography, sounds - and especially silence - have more weight than melodies.
Which leads to a very special connection between acoustics and movement.
Lobo, one of India's leading choreographers and a pioneer of contemporary dance, has choreographed over 30 Bollywood films.
But the glittering Indian world has no place in “Agni”.
Rather, Lobo's yoga-oriented dance technique becomes visible, which encourages the body to 'paint' its own pictures based on breathing.
A project that gives the audience a unique evening in the sold-out city theater.