THE PRAYER
MetLiveArts - Residency Site I (2022)
The Prayer was one of four site-specific works created as part of the MetLiveArts 2021-2022 Artist in Residence program.
MET Cloisters - Chapter House from Notre-Dame-de-Pontaut (12th century)
The Prayer is exploration of the body in prayer, this sequence has been created especially for the Chapter House at the Cloisters, and is inspired by the site’s meditative architecture. The music evokes a haunting stream of prayers, resonating calls, and chants drawn from Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, and Gregorian traditions.
SimA - Thresholds
(A series of four original, site-specific works at the Met Museum.)
Odissi is at once traditional and modern. Rooted in the cultural habitat of the eastern Indian state of Odisha, Odissi today has been recreated for proscenium spaces, moving away from the temple sanctums, royal courts, village squares, and entertainment salons in which it was once performed. Contemporary Odissi practitioners at best share fractured connections with the form’s cultural origins. This lands Odissi at a crucial historical threshold, between its traditionally coded structures and the myriad possibilities beyond them. Inspired by four iconic galleries and the art within them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Satpathy expands Odissi from this threshold through dance interventions: she engages with each site’s architecture, ancestry, stories, legends, and aesthetics.
This residency through MetLiveArts allowed Satpathy to explore deep scholarly and musical connections as well. Beyond Odissi’s complex body language, Satpathy draws from charis, a movement pedagogy derived from the Sanskrit dramatic treatise Natyashastra (200 BCE – 200 CE). Working with Irene Dowd she explored the anatomical basis of Natyashastra’s prescribed scriptural movements, threading them through Odissi’s more regional vocabularies. With composer Bindhumalini Narayanswamy, who has decidedly moved the soundscape away from traditional Odissi music into unconventional spaces, she exposed the sentimentality embedded in each of the four sites, incorporating melodic textures from other cultures outside India.
MUSIC CREDITS
Voices - Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Percussions and effects - Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy
Arrangement and Programming- Sridhar Varadarajan
Recorded at Studio 304, Bangalore
Mixing and Mastering - Protyay Chakraborty, Ahmedabad
CREDITS
Bijayini Satpathy- Choreographer & Performer
Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy- Composer
Poorna Swamy - Dramaturgy
Irene Dowd - Anatomy Research Guide
Brigitte Singh - Costume Advisor
Niti Bagchi - Greek Literature Advice
Claudia Norman - Manager and Producer
Masoom Parmar - India Coordinator and Costume Production Assistance
Accommodations for Satpathy were graciously provided by Tracy Strauss.
This presentation sincerely acknowledges and marks my gratitude to the Mahari temple dancers and young Gotipua dancers of Odisha, whose contributions have made Odissi as loved and rich as it is today.
Photo credit: Stephanie Berger
©bijayinisatpathy | All rights reserved