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Bettina Castano and Raam Kumar in Bhoomiputri, a dance drama.
Inspired by poetry, dance and drama, Bhoomiputri, a dance drama, conceptualised by art curator Latha Kurien Rajeev, is the story of man-woman and the many stages of their relationship.
A project that began in 2016, Bhoomiputri is a creative fusion of several artistic minds that were synergised and brought together on one platform by Latha.
Latha Kurien Rajeev
She explains that author-actor Meera Nair’s poems sowed the seeds of the collaboration. “I selected a few poems from her anthology, Grey: Born When Black Invaded White, and requested playwright and theatreperson E Rajarajeswari to turn it into a script for a play. Raji came up with an interesting script that fired my imagination,” recounts Latha.
Raji chose some verses in the collection and turned those into the voices of a man and a woman. These then became a journey into a man-woman relationship.
When Latha sent the script to flamenco dancer Bettina Castano, she was also enchanted by the theme of the script and came on board without any hesitation.
However, the idea took time taking shape as the pandemic struck. Latha went back to it a couple of months ago in 2024 and “within five days, we were able to come up with the dance-drama,” she says.
“A father’s love is unconditional and all encompassing. Naturally, many women expect that unconditional love and empathy from their partner as well. But that is when she realises the difference,” says Latha and adds, “Many men try to change their partner to be the kind of woman they want. Many women give in but at a certain point there might be a pushback and that is when the conflict begins if he does not understand his partner. Our dance-drama explores the nuances of such a relationship.”
Latha emphasises that through the one-hour narrative, this creative endeavour traces the evolution of an empowered woman — “from innocence to experience to empowerment.”
Perhaps for the first time, flamenco and Kalaripayattu will match steps for a show that has music composed and written by Saju Sreenivas, a member of music band Pathayam.
Kalari artist Raam Kumar R
“Kalaripayattu is a discipline that has a strict framework while flamenco is an expression of the dancer. It was interesting to watch Bettina and Kalari artist Raam Kumar R come together for this project,” says Latha.
Kalamandalam Rahul Aravind plays the mizhavu while El Espina plays the flamenco guitar. Smitha Jacob has designed the costumes of the characters.
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