By Madhusree Chatterjee, IANS,
New Delhi : High on the glass and steel facade of the multi-storey LIC building in Connaught Place here, they looked like butterflies against a shimmering surface. But they were a group of US dancers suspended by cords and swaying to semi-classical western music.
The hooded dancers were clad in loose red body suits. The music at the 120-ft architectural milestone designed by noted architect Charles Correa filled the busy business hub with its lilting notes on a nippy Friday afternoon.
The cords were held by hooks attached to the designer iron scaffolding on the ledge of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) building near the roof.
Their aerial act combined elements of modern dance, free-flowing body movements, acrobatics, mountaineering and a circus trapeze gymnastics.
The dancers leapt, floated and harmonised movements in air like “Spidermen” as hundreds of people below broke into thunderous applause. It was a jaw-dropping workday show-stopper for curious Delhiites.
Welcome to the high-adrenaline world of the vertical dance of Project Bandaloop – the internationally acclaimed vertical dance ensemble from the US that seeks to free contemporary dance from confined spaces to reach out to the common man to raise awareness about built landscape, immediate surrounding, environment and dance as a innovative performing genre.
The troupe brought to India by the US Embassy and American Center and presented by the non-profit culture organisation, Seher, performed their vertical dance as part of their two-city tour of Delhi and Hyderabad.
They had performed at the Golconda Fort Nov 21 to mobilise public opinion to save the “large boulders” of the Deccan plateau, strewn in the vicinity. The ancient rocks are vulnerable to indiscriminate quarrying and desecration in the area.
The ensemble works with a Hyderabad-based non-government organisation to save the rocks of the Deccan.
Bandaloop is not new to India. In 2009, the troupe had performed in the mountains of Mussoorie in Uttarakhand district.
The troupe held the audience in a thrall with acts like “Triple Dress”, “Men’s Rope Play”, “Flags”, “Inverted Duets” (a quartet free hanging) and “Swing With Me” using a variety of dance techniques and combination moves.
Founded in 1991 by Amelia Rudolph, the Project Bandaloop, the pioneer of aerial and vertical dance choreography in the world, performs in natural and urban settings – in theatres, halls, skyscrapers, mountains and even fjords – fusing art and adventure sport.
It challenges expected relationship between movement and gravity and stimulates viewers’ awareness.
“The founder and artistic director of our dance company, Amelia Rudolph’s personal history is steeped in Indian culture. She is the daughter of scholars Llyod and Susanne Rudolph who spent several years in India,” Thomas Cavanagh, the technical and operations director of Project Bandaloop, told IANS.
“She travelled back and forth to India and worked in Jaipur and Delhi. She went to the Woodstock School in Mussoorie. India influences her dance,” Cavanagh added.
Later, when Amelia took to modern dance, she once chanced upon a group rock climbers.
“Amelia realised that she could translate the beauty of rock climbing into vertical dance – a concept that had just captured imagination of the American artistic fraternity in the early 1990s,” Cavanagh said.
“It was possible to teach contemporary dancers climbing and rappelling on rock and wall surfaces – rather than teaching climbers how to dance,” he added.
“We are trying to transform the relationship of the general public with dance by taking dance out of the box and bringing it to where the people are,” Cavanagh said.
The criteria were adaptability and talent. “Amelia looked for dancers who could easily adapt to the environment and was blessed with a flair for dancing. Adaptability was important because bulk of our work was site-specific,” the technical director of the project said.
According to him, the troupe began touring in 1996. And has since performed all over the world with its mission to save the planet and promote new-age arts.
Cavanagh said: “Aerial and vertical were now happening in the US and in countries like Brazil, Argentina and Spain in a big way.”
But why the LIC building? Cavanagh, who has been scouting for a suitable location in the capital for a year with the help of photographs of high-rises, said “the futuristic building was perfectly planned vertically – and directly aimed at the public below.”
For US ambassador to India Timothy Roemer, “The project Bandaloop is another example of robust cultural exchange between the two countries to promote understanding and break down barriers.”
Project Bandaloop is an initiative to prove that arts transcend all boundaries, founder and creative director of Seher said.