Meghna Bhardwaj
33
29 January 2021
02.00 pm, Ist
Shiv Nadar University, India

Veins

My gesture really is the urge to reach out to people from moments of utter isolation during the lockdown, which I felt very deeply as a dancer. The elements I am trying to bring into a relationship with this film are a. my own moving body, b. a piece of furniture I decided to use as my collaborator when no other body was there during the lockdown, c. a yarn since as a therapy I have started bringing it into my art with crochet knitting, something that I am learning from my mother, d. Open sites with open sky, wind, sunshine, trees, and the chance of an airplane passing through the sky, all of which one would urge for in times such as these, and e. lastly the 'performance' of it all with which I am hoping to connect to the world beyond my immediate world. I think the gesture for me really is 'dancing'. I have been a dancer all my life. I have been consistently moving from one project to another before the lockdown happened. And when that happened, I missed dancing with other bodies a lot. Plus I really missed dancing in wide spaces since my house has very limited space. I started feeling extremely claustrophic to an extent that I fell sick with severe insomnia. While I was in the middle of my treatment, world started opening up and I started sending out applications to residencies etc. I could not wait to get into the thick of a creative process, play with ideas and forms, and collaborate with people. This film is an attempt at all of that. Contributing this film to care index project is actually my way of asking for healing energy from Care Index. Its a way of reaching out to the world, to viewers, to interested participants, and to invite them to talk with me about dance, forms, choreographic processes, spatial events, etc. It is really my attempt to empower my own self of a performer, as much as to empower performers and dancers like me worldwide, who must be urging to dance live for the world again. Everything you see in the film in that sense is seeking support, seeking support and partnership from objects like the woven chair and the yarn in the lack of support of live bodies, leaning into nature and seeking motivation from nature to dance, and then creating a chance to recall my analytical choreographic mind while I put the frames together into a performance for a 'spectator'.

My gesture really is the urge to reach out to people from moments of utter isolation during the lockdown, which I felt very deeply as a dancer. The elements I am trying to bring into a relationship with this film are a. my own moving body, b. a piece of furniture I decided to use as my collaborator when no other body was there during the lockdown, c. a yarn since as a therapy I have started bringing it into my art with crochet knitting, something that I am learning from my mother, d. Open sites with open sky, wind, sunshine, trees, and the chance of an airplane passing through the sky, all of which one would urge for in times such as these, and e. lastly the 'performance' of it all with which I am hoping to connect to the world beyond my immediate world.

I think the gesture for me really is 'dancing'. I have been a dancer all my life. I have been consistently moving from one project to another before the lockdown happened. And when that happened, I missed dancing with other bodies a lot. Plus I really missed dancing in wide spaces since my house has very limited space. I started feeling extremely claustrophic to an extent that I fell sick with severe insomnia. While I was in the middle of my treatment, world started opening up and I started sending out applications to residencies etc. I could not wait to get into the thick of a creative process, play with ideas and forms, and collaborate with people. This film is an attempt at all of that. Contributing this film to care index project is actually my way of asking for healing energy from Care Index. Its a way of reaching out to the world, to viewers, to interested participants, and to invite them to talk with me about dance, forms, choreographic processes, spatial events, etc. It is really my attempt to empower my own self of a performer, as much as to empower performers and dancers like me worldwide, who must be urging to dance live for the world again. Everything you see in the film in that sense is seeking support, seeking support and partnership from objects like the woven chair and the yarn in the lack of support of live bodies, leaning into nature and seeking motivation from nature to dance, and then creating a chance to recall my analytical choreographic mind while I put the frames together into a performance for a 'spectator'.

Keywords:

weaving, choreographing, writing, arranging, curating, dancing, beauty, belonging, connection, desire, dreams, empathy, faith, hope. inspiration, joy, love

Action Words:

choreographing, imagery, chance-encounters, thread/yarn/weaving, collaborating, writing, sounds, reaching out, being in nature, breathing, caress, dancing, drawing, embrace, listening, meditation