Touring of ‘Half of Me’ by Swati Dance Company has resulted from a successful research and development work supported by Project Grant funding from Arts Council England and sharing that took place at the Dukes Lancaster in summer 2017.
This 90-minute production is an emotive work that brings together cross genre of dance, music and theatre performed by highly charismatic Bharatanatyam dancers with modern choreography, using poignant story-line and spellbinding music by Praveen D. Rao, a versatile music composer from India who creates new genre of music connecting classical music with modern sensibilities.
Inspired by Satinder Kaur Chohan’s play by the same title, Half of Me is based on a modern-day theme which shares often unheard stories of young people born through Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and draws parallel to a similar storyline based on motherhood from famous Indian epic ‘Mahabharata’.
The artistic idea of this work is grounded in the technique of Bharatanatyam, a classical South Asian dance form but has contemporary relevance in connecting with diverse audience. This work has wider appeal and especially easy to reach young dance audience, as well as families.
Swati Dance Company can engage youth groups from the region and invite them to attend the workshop prior to the show and present a curtain raiser if there is an interest.
