NAINO

MetLiveArts - Residency Site I V (2022)

Naino was one of four site-specific works created as part of the MetLiveArts 2021-2022 Artist in Residence program.
The Astor Chinese Garden Court (17th century style)

Naino : In this piece, Ming Hall – a courtyard within a scholar's garden in the city of Suzhou, China – inspires a narrative exploration of a poem by Kabir, a 15th century Indian mystic claimed by both Hindu and Islamic traditions. The poem is worldly and spiritual as it employs intimate, erotic speech that is typical to both the Sufi way of Islam and the Bhakti tradition of Hinduism. The speaker invites the beloved into their eyes, and from there into their inner landscape. The ideal here is to become one with the divine by taking in its magnificent vision. 

SimA - Thresholds
(A series of four original, site-specific works at the Met Museum.)

Odissi is at once traditional and modern. Rooted in the cultural habitat of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, Odissi today has been recreated for proscenium spaces, moving away from the temple sanctums, royal courts, village squares, and entertainment salons in which it was once performed. Contemporary Odissi practitioners at best share fractured connections with the form’s cultural origins. This lands Odissi at a crucial historical threshold, between its traditionally coded structures and the myriad possibilities beyond them. Inspired by four iconic galleries and the art within them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Satpathy expands Odissi from this threshold through dance interventions: she engages with each site’s architecture, ancestry, stories, legends, and aesthetics.

This residency through MetLiveArts allowed Satpathy to explore deep scholarly and musical connections as well. Beyond Odissi’s complex body language, Satpathy draws from charis, a movement pedagogy derived from the Sanskrit dramatic treatise Natyashastra (200 BCE – 200 CE).  Working with Irene Dowd she explored the anatomical basis of Natyashastra’s prescribed scriptural movements, threading them through Odissi’s more regional vocabularies.  With composer Bindhumalini Narayanswamy, who has decidedly moved the soundscape away from traditional Odissi music into unconventional spaces, she exposed the sentimentality embedded in each of the four sites, incorporating melodic textures from other cultures outside India.

MUSIC CREDITS

Composed and sung by  - Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Adapted from the Original Track  “Come into my Eyes “  from the Album Re/Semblance: Saath Saath
Yangqin - Kimho Ip
Bazouki - Sridhar Varadarajan
Banjo - Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Recorded at Prabhath Studios Bangalore, HongKong Baptist University Hongkong, Studio 304 Bangalore
Mixing and Mastering - Protyay Chakraborty, Ahmedabad

CREDITS

Bijayini Satpathy- Choreographer & Performer
Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy- Composer
Poorna Swamy - Dramaturgy 
Irene Dowd - Anatomy Research Guide
Brigitte Singh - Costume Advisor
Niti Bagchi - Greek Literature Advice
Claudia Norman - Manager and Producer
Masoom Parmar - India Coordinator and Costume Production Assistance
Accommodations for Satpathy were graciously provided by Tracy Strauss.

This presentation sincerely acknowledges and marks my gratitude to the Mahari temple dancers and young Gotipua dancers of Odisha, whose contributions have made Odissi as loved and rich as it is today.

Photo credit: Stephanie Berger
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