About The Event
A sonic weave exploring poems by Kabir, Janabai and Chokhamela; an interplay of music, theatre and dance.
The word Jheeni means subtle. Jheeni ventures into the empty space between words in the poems of Janabai, Chokhamela and Kabir. Their poems are worlds embedded with silences, non-verbal stories of struggle, doubt, hesitation, revelation and surrender. Navigating this uncharted terrain through a series of sonic and spatial improvisations, the artistes weave in and out of these worlds, using metaphors the poems offer: the cloth, the boat and the body, blurring the line between personal and collective journeys along the way.
Directors' Note:
Jheeni is a weave of multiple hues and threads.
A weave that dares to embrace air.
Words of contemporary poet Arundhathi Subramaniam bring together voices of Kabir, Janabai, Chokhamela and Chowdaiah, along with their translations in English.
Through one lens, it is an exploration of poetry- diving into rich mystic voices in Hindi/Braj bhasha, Marathi, Kannada and English. Through another, it is a musical journey- with voice blending into tabla, and improvised guitar exploring with ghunghroos. Embodiment of the poems in Kathak, contemporary movement and dance-theatre brings in yet another dimension.
The treatment of text varies from poem to poem. Beginning with an abstract, melodic and rhythmic interplay rich in sound and movement, Jheeni then ventures into storytelling with song, dance and abhinaya, coming back once again to silence and the abstract, deliberately overthrowing easy classifications and inhabiting the rich dialectic of nirgun and sagun bhakti.
Woven together in a production that can occupy many stages and spaces, Jheeni is a celebration of the diversity that Bhakti poetry offers.''
The word Jheeni means subtle. Jheeni ventures into the empty space between words in the poems of Janabai, Chokhamela and Kabir. Their poems are worlds embedded with silences, non-verbal stories of struggle, doubt, hesitation, revelation and surrender. Navigating this uncharted terrain through a series of sonic and spatial improvisations, the artistes weave in and out of these worlds, using metaphors the poems offer: the cloth, the boat and the body, blurring the line between personal and collective journeys along the way.
Directors' Note:
Jheeni is a weave of multiple hues and threads.
A weave that dares to embrace air.
Words of contemporary poet Arundhathi Subramaniam bring together voices of Kabir, Janabai, Chokhamela and Chowdaiah, along with their translations in English.
Through one lens, it is an exploration of poetry- diving into rich mystic voices in Hindi/Braj bhasha, Marathi, Kannada and English. Through another, it is a musical journey- with voice blending into tabla, and improvised guitar exploring with ghunghroos. Embodiment of the poems in Kathak, contemporary movement and dance-theatre brings in yet another dimension.
The treatment of text varies from poem to poem. Beginning with an abstract, melodic and rhythmic interplay rich in sound and movement, Jheeni then ventures into storytelling with song, dance and abhinaya, coming back once again to silence and the abstract, deliberately overthrowing easy classifications and inhabiting the rich dialectic of nirgun and sagun bhakti.
Woven together in a production that can occupy many stages and spaces, Jheeni is a celebration of the diversity that Bhakti poetry offers.''
