Photos of Sahiba Singh and her dance theatre | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Flux School of Arts will premiere its 14th production, Sea of Fire. Sahiba Singh, dancer, choreographer and director, describes it as a dance theatre performance exploring the devastation of war. “It questions our role as spectators through dance and movement. Bringing forth ideas of home, loss, grief, violence, identity, nostalgia and accountability, sea of fire This is a passionate, humanitarian call for help. At the heart of our work, we carry the loss of innocence of so many children in Gaza who have lost their voices.”
Topic sea of fire Sahiba, who founded Flux in 2019, says the film is a satire on war crimes. “I was seeing pictures and videos on social media of children being caught in the crossfire of war. While there are political differences between nations and wars, children need to be kept away from it. As adults, we need to be responsible about wars.”
Sahiba says children who grow up in conflict areas grow up with disrupted nervous systems and anger issues. “This is only going to perpetuate the cycle of abuse. Children will not be able to understand what is happening nor will they be able to rationalise what is happening today and the horrors they are facing, but it can fill them with fear, anxiety and mistrust.”
sea of fire Sahiba says this is mainly from the children’s point of view. “Whatever our political stances are, they should be kept away from conflict.” sea of fire It is an original work featuring students from Sahiba’s contemporary dance course, The X-Sense Dance Program.
“After training, we do three months of production work, which is curated and we come out with an original work,” says Sahiba, 38, who has been practising contemporary dance for two decades.
“My aim is to use art for both individual and systemic change. I also believe that the purpose of art is to comfort troubled people and to comfort comfortable people. Therefore, art has a therapeutic and activist side. If we can use it as a means of dialogue or to start conversations about issues that affect us negatively or positively, it can have a ripple effect, leading to change.”
Some of Sahiba’s previous productions have been about the climate crisis and the ideal of the wild woman. “We have always been working on a specific theme. I use dance theatre because both dance and theatre are expressive arts. We can express ourselves through our bodies, expressions and voices through these genres.”
Dance theatre is not an intellectual space, Sahiba says, but rather an internal, emotion-based intuitive space. “It is a space where people can feel rather than trying to understand it. That is the beauty of art, which is emotion-based and that is what we want to do with our productions.”
Sahiba says that a dance drama performance is different from a folk or traditional theatrical performance. “It is not about dance but about movement. We move our bodies and let them express themselves in an exaggerated way. We do not follow a structure like classical dance. So, dance drama becomes abstract, open to interpretations and there is scope for freedom in the way we present it.
sea of fire, It is an hour-long performance with no dialogue. “Since it is a current political issue, it is based on the expression of the movement set to the music we have compiled.”
Cease Fire will be staged at Medai Theatre on September 28 at 4 pm and 6 pm. Tickets are available on BookMyShow.
Published – Sep 24, 2024 07:02 AM IST
