A graceful, energetic abstract

‘Torobaka’, the Flamenco-Contemporary dance show was presented by Akram Khan and Israel Galvan as part of the annual Park Festival

It was Sunday evening. Ganeshas were leaving after receiving their annual 10-day quota of worship; to be immersed and dismantled and disfigured after all the pampering.

Roads were mostly empty. People turned up in large numbers to attend the much publicised “Torobaka” at Shilpa Kala Vedika.

The Flamenco-Contemporary dance show was presented as part of The Park Hotel’s annual event.

Torobaka had Akram Khan, the contemporary dancer from India and the Flamenco dancer from Spain, Israel Galvan, electrifying the stage for 70 minutes.

At the end of the show, audience came out gushing at the mindboggling performances of both, along with a highly impressive team of musicians.

It is said that the euphony of their names had set the scene. Dance before it became art - The transition, the intermediary space, the interstice, where they operated.

It was not, of course, an ethnic exchange between traditions, an exercise in global dance. It was about creating something from a way of understanding dance- derived, certainly, from dancing Kathak and Flamenco- that harks back to the origins of voice and of gesture, before they began to produce meaning. Mimesis rather than mimicry.

Israel and Akram Khan danced without compromise, for the audience to go on perceiving it as art. If a dancer’s energy could be measured, they must have expended a million calories.

With perfect sync, coordination and an enviable precision, they danced. The sophisticated lighting added to the refined sound quality. Hyderabad audience were not only very receptive and appreciative, but also were qualified to be called the best.

They switched off the cell phones (or silenced them), no one took pictures with flash and no, not even kids made any sounds. Isn’t that enough to qualify as the best??

By:Vijaya Pratap