Our Story
The I.D.P. is an approach to dig for the essence of dance itself.
Professional dancers from backgrounds as diverse as classical Indian dances, break dance, contemporary dance, folk dances, Sufi dance, classical Chinese dance, popping, and waacking are working in this project together. We are working like in a Laboratory with all these different substances and use very different approaches to make them meet each other.
After the first meeting of the projects core group in India (Kolkatta) in Summer 2013, we had the first working period of two months in winter 2014/15, in which we created a dance piece with a length of 45 min. that we performed in a theatre in Kolkatta.
This project was followed be I.D.P. # 2 in Austria
I.D.P. # 2 in Austria
In spring 2018 the second part of I.D.P. took place in Linz / Austria, in seven weeks working period we created a dance piece with the length of more than an hour with the name "Extegrity". Except our artistic work, we were also teaching more than 20 workshops in different styles to dance enthusiasts from all over Austria and won the price for integration work of the city of Linz "Stadt der Vielfalt".
The core group of I.D.P. # 2 were 10 artists coming from very different backgrounds in a geographical and cultural understanding. The European members are strongly connected with Contemporary-arts, Hip-Hop, Middle Eastern and Chinese culture. The Indian members are coming from cultural (subcultural) contexts like Hip Hop, Waacking and Classical Indian Styles.
EXTEGRITY
In our creative work for the piece "Extegrity" we dealt with the topic of integration, integration on different levels - What it means to integrate ourselves into a society? Do we loose a part of ourselves with doing
that or is it a way to expand it's frame? Are there alternatives to integration and what does this term mean to each of us? We had a 6 weeks working period here in Austria from the end of March until the beginning of May 2018. The trailer and teaser of our work you find below:
Funded by:
Supported by:
I.D.P. Linz-Kolkatta in India
The biggest challenge in this process was to build the "bridge" between the different cultures, through which we could meet for a common path, and this worked out very well.
Part of the concept was, that each individual dancer taught his / her specific dance style to the whole group, with the aim of working in a common movement language, and it involved the whole group into each dancers physical and emotional understanding of expression through movement.
The most important tool in the creation and process where contemporary dance techniques and concepts.
Techniques such as "flying low" or stretching exercises that was taught on a daily base. This created a framework that demanded both, classical and urban dancers, at the same level and opened their bodies and minds to new improvisation tasks and movement sequences.
The content of our piece
dealt with the theme of "initiation" and what it means in relation to our cultures (societies). This should give each and every one of the "young" dancers the opportunity to talk about their personal experiences along the path of becoming adults and to deal with their situation on an artistic level. What does it mean to grow
up as a woman in Indian society and to prove yourself as a dancer? What does it mean, such as Prince Paswan, growing up in the poorest areas of an indian city like Kolkata, with more than 15 million
people? What does it mean for the Austrian members of the group, who grew up in the hectic and time pressure of the western society, to befriend with such a different and new cultural environment as India?
The trailer of this piece "Life Atho Kotha" you will find below:
Funded by:
CONNECT WITH US
Please feel free to contact us via email with any questions you may have.
elias@melisha.at
