Screen · Screendance · 2020
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Who sees who?
Still from the film
The question
How does the camera become an extension of the dancer — and who sees whom?
Context
This one-take solo screendance film is based on hysterical realism experienced during the pandemic. The dancer uses facial choreography to share the experiences of in-between emotions through the Navarasa, the nine emotional states of the Indian drama treatise: love (shringaara), laughter (haasya), compassion (karuna), anger (roudra), courage (veera), fear (bhayaanaka), disgust (bheebhatsya), wonder (adbhutha) and peace (shaantha).
How did the camera become an extension of herself? How can the camera subvert the gaze of the viewer? The sound design emerged with custom electronics, modular synth, and the expressive facial choreography.
Published with Untitled (2020) as “Two Screendance Films” in Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, vol. 17, nos. 1 and 2 (2021).
Credits
- Choreography and execution
- Sumedha Bhattacharyya
- Sound design
- sound.codes
- Published in
- Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, vol. 17, nos. 1 and 2 (2021)