DRE
Performed in New Delhi Feb 2010 and Norwegian National Opera and Ballet Oct 2010, 1 week residency at TOPIC, Tolosa, Spain. 60min composition + performance for the contemporary dance group House of Damini with Ella Fiskum, Sudesh Adana, Dadi Pudumjee and Aditi Mangaldas. choreography: Sudesh Adhana
GARA> Idatzia> Theatre Criticism GARA newspaper 12.10.2010
Arena for a Norwegian preview
By Mikel CHAMIZO
Dre” is a performance produced by the Norwegian-Indian company Damini House of Culture, which opens officially today at the National Opera & Ballet of Norway, Oslo. The reason we could see the show in Tolosa three days in advance is because the Topic International Puppet Centre in Tolosa, has given a residency with all its facilities to the company for the final phase of production that concludes with a pre-premiere. The Topic is doing very well: with this type of initiative, the Centre is known and appreciated in Europe. Tolosa is bringing high-level international events and is also adding to the museum's puppet collection, since yesterday, after the show, the Norwegian-Indians gave one of their masks to the institution in appreciation for their support.
"Dre" is a part of an episode from the "Mahabharata" one of the longest war of Indian mythology, which left a hundred dead Karauvas on the ground. Gandhari, the mother of those hundred evil Karauvas, comes to the battlefield where her children lie and curses Krishna. The creators of "Dre" put on this mythological story with modern phenomenon of armed struggle, wondering how women of great morality as Gandhari, representing every parent of every activist, have been mistaken in their children's education. "Dre 'is a complex performance, but highly conceptual narrative.
The music is full of distortions and respires a horror vacuum into the choreography, as if the characters were to die when they stop dancing. It has no round development, but is brilliant at times and its anguished message is transmitted well.
Sudesh Adhana (Aditi Mangaldas red adm.) danced Gandhari, using a catalogue of abrupt movements and angry, at times very similar to flamenco (there are theories that defend the Indian origin of flamenco). Aditi Mangaldas (Sudesh Adhana red adm.) hundred Karauvas portrayed with an almost acrobatic dance very difficult and physically demanding, as an endless struggle, expressed with extraordinary technical perfection. Dadi Pudumjee handled the puppet of Krishna with the unreality required.
http://www.operaen.no/Default.aspx?ID=26876&ProductID=PROD578