Moving to changing times
In (Un) Thread, MeshGround presents a dance performance that aims at being a conversational artwork
Movement becomes a language of its own at (Un) Thread, an upcoming performance by MeshGround, a collective of artists and educators that aims to introduce alternative thinking through movement.
The production delves into the complexities of the past, present, and future using the medium of dance. Meshground’s founder Umeshi Rajeendra sees (Un) Thread as a performance that is conceptual in its art-making and one that will engage with the audience through multiple perspectives.
Adding their talents to this conversational artwork are 14 dancers of varying dance backgrounds from classical ballet, and traditional Sri Lankan, to contemporary.
“When you look at the current times that we’re living in and how we’ve come to this point in time where there’s so much destruction and conflict of not just human lives, but also animals, plants and nature, the movement forces that have shaped the past, present, and future in entanglement in many ways is something that we are looking at from a critical perspective through our work,” says Umeshi.
Umeshi considers her process to be collaborative as it takes into account opinions, views, and cultural knowledge of all 14 dancers. “I have a conversation with all of them. I’m sharing my ideas, thoughts and nuances to get to a place of respecting each other, but also understanding that differences exist and how we can bring those differences in conversation with each other. As a result, my choreography is very collaborative and I engage with multiple ways to look at dancemaking from conversations to reading materials,” she says.
This collaborative nature extends to the musicians and sound artists as well. The original music for Un (Thread) is specifically created by Isuru Kumarasinghe and the Musicmatters
Trio (Sumudi Suraweera, Sarani Perera, and Uvindu Perera) who support Umeshi’s artistic research and choreography.
Almost 90 percent of the music has been created especially for the performance while the remaining 10 percent features music from different parts of the world that connects with regards to the feeling, mood, and meaning.
Initially begun in 2015 as a pilot project before its official launch in 2020, Meshground was a project of the dancer and choreographer who has a passion for creating work that provokes thought and conversation while exploring and challenging the very notion of dance. “After trial and error and seeing in many ways what dancing and movement mean in this context with the current bodies, current times, current locality, and how we can radically reimagine how movement can sort of shape this world for the better, we started rethinking an experimental form of dance education,” Umeshi explains.
A dancer for 22 years, having been trained in classical ballet, Shonaka Ranatunga joined MeshGround after a break from dance. As someone who is used to structure in movement, she says there was a bit of a learning curve. “From what I have experienced, this is the closest way to express what you are truly feeling,” says Shonaka. “I just hope the audience will also be able to take away the questions, the intuition from them, and also understand that there are clearly way more ways to think about dance than just as a particular style.”
Another dancer with years of experience is Ashley Fargnoli who has explored many styles from ballet to South Asian dance forms during her time in India. As a dance movement therapist, Ashley is in tune with tapping into this deep and authentic movement. “We’re not moving from a technical place. We are really honing in on our relational skills, so I think that has helped in this process because a lot of movements are coming from all the dancers.”
“It’s a collaborative process and I think that has helped me just be able to contribute and be a part of this,” says Ashley. “I think it’s very exciting. It’s very timely, just with everything that’s happening in the world today, geopolitically on a grand scale of things as well on a more micro scale, so I think it’s just really important that we are all showing our differences in how we move alongside each other and around each other, and how we cope with those differences. It’s a really powerful contribution, especially at this moment in time in the world.”
(Un) Thread on March 16 and 17 at the Lotus Room of the BMICH, promises to be a sensorial dance at play that is part an attempt and part an invitation to embrace unexpected possibilities of being and belonging.
Tickets are available for purchase at www.tickets.lk.