Intimate conversations
Chatting up Pune-based contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer Yuteka Trripati who will be presenting 'The Bedroom' — an experimental dance piece that explores the dynamics of relationships
What happens inside the bedroom, must remain in the bedroom, is the general perception of society. The word 'bedroom' is typically associated with intimate relationships and any discussion about it does raise eyebrows. But is it just the intimate moments shared by partners that define a bedroom? Not really. Your bedroom is a place where you also deal with your fears and insecurities, and often search for the true meaning of your existence. The Bedroom by Yuteka Trripati is a dance production that attempts at finding such meanings.
To be performed in the city on April 14, it is an experimental contemporary dance piece based on the dynamics of relationships that take place inside a bedroom, and how they are affected when they move outside closed doors.
Choreographed by Trripati, a Pune-based contemporary dancer, teacher and choreographer, the piece is divided into five acts and each act deals with a different situation. The choreography will be brought to life by her students on stage.
THE FIVE ACTS
"The first solo talks about identity crisis, and an individual dealing with personal dilemma. The second piece is a duet that I have choreographed on the theme of inter dependency of two individuals. For instance, not always do we get someone who reciprocates the way we want them to, especially when we start depending on them emotionally on a day-to-day basis. Also what happens when someone we are so used to being around, goes away from us? The third is a lighter one, on sleepover. It features four dancers, and works with group behaviour. As we see it so often around us, even in close groups, not always everyone enjoys everyone else's company. People try to alienate those who don't 'fit in', especially in group gatherings, like a sleepover," explains Trripati.
In her fourth act, two girls perform which is inspired from the behavioural changes in two people who love each other; while they are in their private areas, like a bedroom, as compared to when they know others are watching, even if they merely hold hands in public. "It's a shame that we have to hide our feelings in order to please society," says the young choreographer.
The last piece is a solo, based on the role of a woman in society — what she is expected to do and how she keeps meeting those expectations in a loop till the end. Says Trripati, "Countless duties as a daughter, wife, daughter-in-law, mother — I have tried to bring out what she goes through, and how good it would feel to break out of this routine for once by being the individual she is, and not what the world expects her to be."
In the choreography, lights play a major role as Trripati has tried to portray different spaces using different kinds of lights such as torch, LED wires, shadow, fairy lights, lanterns, etc — all the individual pieces have their own individual lights.
Trripati says that she uses her own personal experiences and incorporates them in her choreography. Every piece she choreographs, has something that she believes in or strongly feels about. "Only then I can portray my perception of that topic in the form of dance. In The Bedroom, all five pieces explore different issues and the issues are easily recognisable in the society that we live in today. All I did was open my senses and observe people and situations around me without judging, and then turn that into dance. So they are not stories, but concepts that are tied to the bedroom theme," quips Trripati.
She says that it was quite challenging to do the piece given that conversations that happen in the bedroom are seldom spoken of. "Talking openly to my students about these intimate issues was tough. Fortunately, this bunch of dancers are very mature; they took to my choreography and completely made it theirs by adding their own experiences and personal stories to it," she explains.
Talking about how she included the element of intimacy and identity crisis in the choreography, Trripati says, "For intimacy, we have worked with the idea of gentle touch with a rhythm to depict the level of comfort between two people which eventually picks up pace. The dynamics change as the couple explores one another comfortably when they are in their private space. On the other hand, identity crisis is a very confusing state of mind, for which we have used more staccato movements, with repetition in some parts. Also, there is use of a variety of expressions to portray an unstable mind not sure of what it wants to be, yet."
A perfect choreography is somewhat incomplete without music that seamlessly blends with the dance. Giving us a peek, Trripati says that she first choreographed the individual pieces, then started researching about the music. "I always had in mind the kind of music that I wanted to use. There is a variety of genres that are used in The Bedroom, right from Western classical music to Carnatic vocals, to more modern-classical music by Bela Bartok, a pop music track released recently, and also What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. Two of the pieces had the music made for them. I have a fantastic music composer, Ramya Thiyagarajan, who composed two lovely pieces that were tailor made for the dance," concludes Trripati who heads her studio, Yuteka Trripati Dance in Viman Nagar.
ST READER SERVICE
'The Bedroom' will be showcased at Bring into Being (BiB), Arts and Recreation Centre, 1st floor, Echoing Greens, Wakad, on April 14, 7.30 pm onwards. Bookings available on www.townscript.com
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