Elegant in a monotone black angarkha and salwar, Bijayini Satpathy embodied the act of prayer with sluggish, suggestive actions, as she re-invented her fashion in ‘The Prayer’ at Chapter Home at The Met Cloisters. This was one of many 4 authentic, site-specific choreographies collectively named ‘SimA – Thresholds’, offered on the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York in Might 2022, the place she was the artist-in-residence. What adopted was a ticketed, stay efficiency ‘Doha’ in September final.
When Covid was scaring the world and other people had been dashing to get residence, Bijayini took the final flight out of India. She quarantined for per week in a lodge in New York, earlier than commencing her residency. Museums had been shut by then. She remembers how she was given private excursions of the museum, with nobody else round. At first, Bijayani was overwhelmed — the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork unfold throughout three venues, showcases 5000 years of artwork, with near half 1,000,000 displays. The place does one begin? She would movie the areas, measure the areas, and collaborate with the composer Bindhumalini Narayanswamy to resolve the the place, the what and the how. She got here again to rehearse — they had been open rehearsals with the general public watching.
As a part of the Met’s celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, MetLiveArts appeared again on Bijayini’s residency, with a web-based dialogue among the many artiste, composer and Limor Tomer, from the museum, and the digital launch of her works.
Motion vocabulary
Bijayani in ‘Antaranga’
| Photograph Credit score:
Stephanie Berger
The problem for the artiste was to create an nearly authentic motion vocabulary and music with out boundaries. Having left Nrityagram as principal dancer after about 25 years, the place they enhanced the curves of Odissi via choreography, Bijayini was growing herself as a solo artiste. The physicality of her fashion grew to incorporate her day by day ritual of yoga and pilates, giving it a meditative, intentional really feel. From right here, the leap into abstraction was natural, a leap nonetheless. Bijayini’s analysis into the charis and the anatomical references within the Natya Shastra, the latter guided by Irene Dowd, added to her motion dictionary.
Every of the 4 in ‘SimaA Thresholds‘ was distinctive. The inspiration was from assorted sources. The situation of ‘The Prayer’ in a European medieval reconstructed monastery dictated the temper which was meditative, and free flowing. The music mirrored prayers from completely different backgrounds — Buddhist,Hindu and Islamic. One flowed into the opposite seamlessly, simply because the expansive actions and deep squats sometimes referencing Odissi did. The upturned palms had been a lietmotif of the 17-minute non-rhythmic piece. The filming by Elliot Stern and workforce added to the imaginative course of, because the shifting cameras captured the evocative house and the actions directly.
For ‘Taru’, that means tree in Sanskrit, Bijayini was dressed up in a reasonably Odissi costume of beige and blue. It was to not carry out conventional Odissi, however for a tackle Odissi. The music, a tarana, uncommon for an Odissi repertoire, was chosen for its Persian origin to match the intricate Persian carpets within the Islamic artwork gallery. Including accompaniments just like the guitar, strings, and the Persian-origin Oudh modified the texture of the melody. This was a winsome efficiency — light-footed, swish and joyous, with frequent references to bushes and blossoming flowers.
Bijayani Satpathy performing ‘Taru’
| Photograph Credit score:
Stephanie Berger
In ‘Antaranga’, Bijayini confirmed us how depth could be conveyed via angika abhinaya, the physique, as the traditional Greek poem, Sappho Fragment 31 about love, longing and agony, was recited (Niti Bagchi) in parallel. The music was low key — delicate percussion and an occasional melody — created by Bindhumalini. It was carried out within the Trendy and Up to date Artwork Gallery in entrance of a giant, vibrant draped canvas portray by Sam Gilliam, whose life and works knowledgeable the sequence.
The Ming dynasty-modelled Chinese language Rock Backyard, named the Astor Chinese language Backyard Courtroom, was the location for ‘Naino’. Bijayini used the hand gestures and metaphors of Indian classical dance on this Kabir doha ‘Naino antar aav thu’ as the lady asks her beloved to ‘come into her eyes’. It was the thought of affection, moderately than a story of affection, that allowed house for abstraction, whereas utilizing metaphors of the moon rays affecting her and the lotus, the bees and the flowers, the lady in love ready by the water, et al. It was unpretentious, simply winsome. And made approachable by her easy cotton observe sari costume. Soulful Hindustani music (Bindhumalini) sounded completely different with the sounds of the Yangqin (Kimho lp), Bouzouki (Sridhar Varadarajan) and the banjo (Bindhumalini).
Fuss-free portrayal
Bijayani within the piece ‘Doha’
| Photograph Credit score:
ALEXIS SILVER
The ultimate ‘Doha’ was a end result of Bijayini’s journey. The theme was ‘From prayer to play’, on a non-figurative, worldwide canvas. It ended with a superbly sung (Bindhumalini) Urdu doha ‘Ahistha’ by Mir Taqi Mir that means ‘Decelerate your breath to guard the universe.’ Wearing an all black angarkha-salwar with minimal jewelry and her salt and pepper hair in a decent bun, Bijayini shorn herself off of the customary glamour. There was nothing to distract the viewers from her singing limbs, the evocative music (Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy) and the beautiful units and lighting (Sujay Saple).
As ‘Doha’ transitioned from meditative to rhythmic and soulful to blissful and profound, in a seamless stream of music and motion, Bijayini was eloquent with the brand new abstraction. The motion sans footwork was swish and poetic. It might have appeared like Odissi, however was not. She had borrowed from her quick choreographies — the prayerful chants with expansive actions and the upturned palm, and the blissful tarana. This was the primary time we heard the mardala on this milieu together with Bijayini reciting the bols within the rhythmic segments. Whereas her physicality and her physique conditioning dominated, her facial expressions, that had been delicate, got here via within the quieter moments.
With the sort of help and publicity the Met provides, Limor Tomer hinted at a ‘earlier than and after’ within the careers of artistes of the Artist-in-Residency programme. What’s going to Bijayini be sooner or later? Now we have to attend and see.