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My participation in CDF gave me an opportunity to share ideas with some of the most innovative dance artists in the United States and to develop a new movement vocabulary that has taken my choreography in exciting directions.
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Hema Rajagopalan is a Bharata Natyam dancer, teacher and choreographer of international reputation, and Founder and Artistic Director of Natya Dance Theatre. She is committed to preserving Bharata Natyam in its full integrity, developing the art form in new directions and bringing it to diverse audiences. Her gurus are among the foremost figures in Bharata Natyam and include Padma Shri K. N. Dandayudapani Pillai and the Abhinaya exponent Padma Bhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan. Hema's solo career in India began in 1966; between 1980 and 1994, she performed solo tours with her orchestra three to six months every year, appearing around the U.S. and abroad at prestigious venues and receiving critical acclaim. Hema feels that, as an artist, her task is to produce aesthetically pleasing performances but also to consider her responsibilities as a citizen of the world. She is deeply committed to collaborating with dance artists and musicians from other traditions and to using her art to foster cross-cultural understanding and social harmony. As a choreographer, she has created numerous short works as well as over thirty evening-length productions that have toured to leading national and international venues.
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The project began with extensive research into the origins of the movement vocabulary of Bharata Natyam. This included research in India into basic movement elements called charis, which can be seen in classical temple friezes and statues. The goal was to appropriate these elements and use them to extend the movement vocabulary of Bharata Natyam, thereby making this art form more readily accessible to contemporary audiences. In this way, the boundary between "classical" and "contemporary" was challenged and stretched. The research culminated in the creation of an evening-length work called INSIDE/OUTSIDE, which depicted five evolutionary stages of human experience: contacting, experiencing, reflecting, arriving and returning. INSIDE/OUTSIDE coupled diverse contemporary movements that are rooted in a 3,000-year old movement vocabulary from India with lyrics and poetry to probe complex emotions and experiences. Set to an original musical score, INSIDE/OUTSIDE premiered at the McAninch Arts Center at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. Excerpts from INSIDE/OUTSIDE were previewed as part of the Rhythm Asia Festival presented by Chicago Human Rhythm Project in association with the Museum of Contemporary Art.
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