For more information on Elixir at Springhead 23-28 April click here
A new interactive, cross-art form project that sees choreographer and artistic director of Sadhana, Subathra Subramaniam, continue her explorations into the meeting points between arts and science.
Elixir
A free-flowing evening of dance, visual art and conversation exploring a world with ever decreasing clean water.
Elixir, the second work from Sadhana Dance, sees choreographer and artistic director Subathra Subramaniam continuing to navigate the confluence of arts and science. Elixir dives deep into our cultural relationship with water in a world where its scarcity is an ever increasing-problem.
Evocative and provocative, Elixir combines contemporary choreography, a powerful visual art installation, digital projection and original music with live song and a powerful visual art installation.
It comes out of Subramaniam’s own experiences in India and the High Arctic, as a science teacher in urban London and education director of the Cape Farwell climate change project, and in particular her time with Inuit communities in Nunavut Canada and Greenland.
Subramaniam says: “‘Thousands have lived without love, not one without water’. It’s the final line of WH Auden’s First Things First. Water is the first thing, the basis for all life and all our lives…yet because it’s so everyday and everywhere we rarely give it a second thought. Elixir will, I hope, help us not only appreciate how miraculous and essential water is but also that it is a rapidly dwindling resource. Whether it’s the effects of melting ice on Inuit communities I have spent time with in the Arctic, falling levels in sacred water tanks at Hindu temples in India or local streams running dry here in the UK, everywhere I look there are signs of how our relationship with water is changing and affecting people’s lives.”
Subathra’s long-term collaborators – lighting designer Aideen Malone and audio visual artists Kathy Hinde and Matthew Olden – along with set and costume designer Kate Rigby have together created a powerful audio-visual experience which immerses the audience in the beauty and sound of water. Drawing from the ancient, rich and continually evolving South Indian dance form Bharata Natyam, four dancers interweave movements from rituals, play and cultural behaviour to explore struggles and survival, scarcity and instability.
Each performance of Elixir will be followed by a Cafe Scientifique where Quentin Cooper, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Material World, will chair a discussion between the artists and scientists involved in the show and the audience.
Alongside the stage performance is a visual art installation featuring specially commissioned works by the award-winning sculptor Josh Baum.
Tour dates:
9th February, 7:30pm The Point Leigh Road, Eastleigh Hampshire, SO50 9DE Box Office: 02380 652 333 www.thepointeastleigh.co.uk 25th February, 7:45pm * The Gulbenkian at University of Kent Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NB Box Office: 01227 769075 http://www.kent.ac.uk/gulbenkian/ 3rd March, 8pm The Place Robin Howard Dance Theatre 17 Duke’s Road, London WC1H 9PY Box Office: 020 7121 1100 www.theplace.org.uk 13th March, 7:30pm* The Haymarket Wote Street Basingstoke RG21 7NW Box Office: 01256 844244 http://www.anvilarts.org.uk/whats-on/12/mar/kala-the-arts 27th & 28th April, 7.00pm Springhead Gardens, Fontmell Magna SP7 0NU 01747 811853 http://www.springheadtrust.org.uk/news-and-events.php 4th May** 5th May, 7:30pm RichMix 35-47 Bethnal Green Road London E1 6LA 020 7613 7498 www.richmix.org.uk 11th May, 7:30pm Bridport Arts Centre South Street, Bridport Dorset, DT6 3NR 01308 424 204 www.bridport-arts.com 19th, 20th May, 7:30pm Espinosa Centre Northbridge Road Berkhamsted HP4 1EH 01442 818283 www.espinosacentre.com * Performance Only ** Installation Only