Sowmya Jaganmurthy’s poetry in motion

Have Meera Bai and her poetry always fascinated you? If so Swadhyay, a city based dance company, gives you a chance to revisit the renowned singer’s soulful poems and re-acquaint yourself with her.

In her latest production Prahar, dancer-choreographer Sowmya Jaganmurthy will be seen depicting Meera’s poetry on stage. “My piece is called A Limb Just Moved and it will depict her poems and the love she had for Krishna. It will also talk of worldly confinements and the cultural norms that bound Meera. To establish this we have used a lot of fabric as well,” Sowmya says, giving us a brief on her performance. The act will also speak of Sowmya’s journey as a woman and an artiste and along with her four other dancers will also be part of the act.

Prahar will also include a Bharatanatyam performance by dancers of Prahar and Mudrika. Another dancer, Sourabh will also be presenting a piece called Off Relationships.

All the performances will see the coming together of Bharatanatyam and modern contemporary dance. “I feel that’s the way to go these days. While all my performances are based on themes that are very Indian and traditional and my movements also reflect tradition, you will notice that the techniques are very contemporary in nature. While Bharatanatyam allows me to communicate better, contemporary forms of dancing allows one to understand what we can do with our bodies as dancers,” says Sowmya. And given her popularity among dance connoisseurs and filmmakers alike, we are pretty certain that she knows how to balance both films and stage deftly and bring out engaging performances. “Choreographing for stage performances and films are two very different things. The first day I went on a film set, I was left wondering what I was thinking when I said yes to the project. And if it weren’t my husband directing the film, I would have been asked to leave the place! But eventually I realised that in films, we need to communicate a lot through dance. Certain clarity is required and also we need to visualise dance through camera. This is something choreographer and director Harsha helped me understand. Now I am comfortable with the idea of choreographing for films as well,” she says. Sowmya has worked alongside Harsha in Chingari and has also choreographed the hugely popular song Yarig Helona Nam Problamu... from the film Lifeu Ishtene.

The multifaceted Sowmya is also a yoga teacher. “Yoga is now a part of my life and the day I don’t practice it, I feel like my mind is all over the place! I feel yoga adds a lot of openness to my dance. Ballet is something else that I have dabbled with,” she says. What’s next for her we wonder and she says, “If time permits I would love to learn Odissi and kathak. I have learnt kalaripayattu and next am keen on these two dance forms.” As we chat her up, we realise it is just not her dancing career that she seeks to evolve but also those of like minded dancers. “Swadhyay was started by my dancer friends and me to create opportunities for ourselves. Instead of sitting around and waiting for opportunities to come our way, we decided to support ourselves and presented our first production a year ago. Now that we are growing, we wish to act as a platform for young dancers who are looking to showcase their talent as well. They can get in touch with us and if we like their performance, we will allow them to present their act alongside ours,” she explains. Sowmya also trains HIV positive and underprivileged children in dance and yoga. To know more about Swadhyay log on to www.iamsowmya.com.
 
Watch Meera Bai’s poetry come alive at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram, 7pm, on August 12. Tickets are priced at Rs100