Nayikas

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"A glow to 'GLOW' .... radiance came from the obvious love for Indian art, muth and religion, ... vivid exploration of the art and legend surrounding this pure ancient dance ... fascinating & provocative"
- New York Times

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'Glow' is Nayikas multimedia, experimental dance theater project. It uses traditional dance with Indian cinematic, comic book, and calendar art images to aid in visually mapping elements of popular culture to abstract classical aesthetic forms. It exposes ruptures in traditional understandings of text and philosophy while exploring spirituality and sensuality through the dancer's body. The simple act of women adorning themselves 'glows'with the pulse of the feminine divine, as does the graceful movement of hips swaying, of feet reverberating. A new sense of woman, of body, and of the spiritual is realized when Gods defy gendered classification, the demonic divine coexists with the sensual feminine, and luminescence is not restricted to form.

"A glowing addition to the city's mix "so sultry and lush is the dance, so intense the focus, so tropical the ambience"
-Village Voice

Nayikas is New York's first resident Indian Odissi dance theater company, and one of the only classical, contemporary and progressive dance ensembles in the South Asian Diaspora. Nayikas modernizes comprehension of the aesthetics of Odissi, India's oldest classical dance form, dating back to 2nd Century B.C. Creating potent and theatrical dance pieces, the Nayikas ('heroines') tell stories that both privilege and resurrect the often neglected voices of women. Nayikas draws from feminist iconography in Indian history & mythology. Thus preserving the essential spiritual core of the dance form while envisioning gender equality & promoting diversity of imagination in the often-patriarchal religiosity of these traditions. The Nayikas are Aditi Dhruv, Pavithra Vasudevan, Kirti Srivastava, Shrooti Singh and Myna Mukherjee. (www.nayikas.org)

Fri Apr 14, 2006 Opening Night Premiere with Celebrity Guests & Press.
7:00pm - Performance
9:00 pm - Benefit Reception, Food & Wine, Music by DJ Ashu Rai
Tickets
$75 - Opening Performance, Benefit Reception
$50 - Opening Performance
Venue
Light House International
The Sol and Lillian Goldman Building
111 East 59th Street
New York, NY 10022-1202

Sat Apr 15, 2006
7:00pm
Sun Apr 16, 2006
2:00pm
Tickets
$ 30 - Performance ( $20 student and senior discount available)

For reservations: call 212-933-0162 or email: reservations@nayikas.org



Published April 13, 2006

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