The Hindu god Shiva is an inspiration for aSH, and Indian kuchipudi dancer Shantala Shivalingappa has a presence so self-possessedly serene as to qualify as godly. Her stillness goes deep, however even when she’s transferring there may be hypnotic fidelity in her circling limbs. Lengthy arms stretch into precision-cut angles however she doesn’t slash or slice the air, it’s extra just like the air silently components to make method for her.
Shivalingappa’s outstanding high quality of motion has led her to be a muse for Peter Brook, Pina Bausch, Maurice Béjart and now French director Aurélien Bory, who has conceived this solo that Shivalingappa herself choreographed. The dancer will not be completely alone on stage. There’s percussionist Loïc Schild conjuring light tremolos and ominous rumbles, and there’s the set, designed by Bory, which is a personality in its personal proper.
An unlimited sheet of thick metallic paper hangs behind Shivalingappa, the scene colored a shadowy bronze. The paper begins to ripple and billow, launching ahead like a large beast or wave, threatening to engulf her. But it’s completely doable to imagine that Shivalingappa is silently controlling the forces round her.
The sheet turns into an instrument, Schild rhythmically rapping his fingers on it; it’s additionally a cocoon and a canvas, the place Shivalingappa attracts circles with what’s primarily a large pastry brush after which scatters ash throughout the floor, tracing rings within the mud along with her toes. A picture is slowly revealed, like a rising solar or a strong vortex, one thing mighty and exquisite. aSH is a narrative of fixed transformation and renewal, of destruction and creation, of life’s circularity, and there’s Shivalingappa, with out forceful presence or exertion, on the core of all this visible surprise.
On the Barbican, London, till 29 January as a part of London worldwide mime pageant, which runs till 6 February.
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