A Year of Workshops at Dragonfly Bellydance

                                     

I had first heard about the Dragonfly Bellydance studio when I saw their student troupe performance last year, at the Winter College Bellydance Party at York University, as organized by the lovely Iana Komarnytska. I had the wonderful opportunity of attending six of their workshops this year. I love that they offer workshops focusing on props, which forms the core of most of the workshops I've taken at this studio (although they also organize workshops focusing on choreography, techniques, and different dance vocabularies). I now have a binder full of the notes taken at these workshops as well as the some of the handouts that they give out. These responses reflect my own personal experiences of these beautiful learning opportunities:

            The first workshop I attended was Turkish Roma by Iana Komarnytska in February 2013.  This workshop focused on stylizations. I actually found this approach very helpful- it generated a deeper understanding of the movement dynamic of Turkish Romani dancing. Iana is an insightful teacher with an accessible teaching style, and also provided delightful observations of how the dance relates to the lifestyle. I deeply appreciate the fact that Iana brought it back to its social roots- at the end of the workshop, we all gathered around in a circle and improvised, each one going up at a time to the centre of the circle. I've been interested in Turkish Romani dancing for a number of years, and my previous introductions to this have been through Dalia Carella's dvds and online lessons, primarily oriented towards her signature Dunyavi dance style which draws upon a number of concepts/motifs of Turkish Romani dancing. Iana's workshop greatly helped me gather a deeper understanding of some of the movements characteristic to this style of dance.

            The Dragonfly Studio has a lovely boutique, and I often find myself looking through hipscarves, props and costumes on sale there after the workshops. It was after Iana's workshop that I purchased my first ever set of fanveils- a red-black combination. Ofcourse, I found out soon after that there was a fan-veils workshop being offered, so I registered for that right away!

            The second workshop was Sword Dance, taught by Zahira. She is incredible not only in her skill but also in managing to pack so much invaluable knowledge into a 2-hour workshop. This workshop I had the pleasure of attending along with my dance sisters from Ekakshara Dance Creations. Like Iana, Zahira provided a historical exposition of sword dancing from the Middle East. Having been a History major during my undergrad at Queen's, I greatly enjoyed that! Her handout was also extremely informative about the tropes, popular perceptions, myths and facts about bellydancing with the sword, in addition to having tips and tricks to dancing with the sword. I found her to be an extremely generous teacher, and the second half of the workshop was spent in learning one of her beautifully crafted choreographies. We were all in awe of Zahira's strength and the seemingly effortless grace with which she masters her movements with the sword. Another aspect I greatly enjoyed- Zahira had swords from her personal collection available as loaners for the participants. Through this, we got to see a variety of different sword types available- and also to feel their weight, balance, and look.  

            The third was the much-awaited fan veils workshop with Anuka. I had been playing around with my new red-black fan veils set for a few  weeks before the workshop, and also had been watching youtube extensively to see different dancers use them, as well as techniques and choreographic possibilities. However, it wasn't until Anuka's workshop that I felt like I truly understood the dynamics behind the fan veil, and the use of air. Anuka's emphasis on particularity and precision were probably the best induction I could have for the use of this beautiful prop. I also found refreshing that she used a more traditional song for a fan veils choreography. Her handout also provided brilliant phrase-by-phrase notes of the choreography she taught us. 

            Over the summer, I missed a few workshops- I missed Zahira's Baker's Dozen, and her second sword workshop, mostly because I was busy with my own solo production at the Toronto Fringe Festival, after which I took a few weeks off to go to the States to visit my family. The summer was also an incredibly busy time for Ekakshara, and so it was difficult to keep up with workshops.

            I returned to Toronto in mid-August, in time for a production-style private event performance by Ekakshara Dance Creations. Dragonfly had a delicious-sounding Props Intensive, focusing on five props, on the afternoon of the day before the performance! We weren't sure if these would coincide with the rehearsal times towards the Ekakshara event, but ultimately, I did end up registering, along with Amber from Ekakshara. I think we were the last two participants to register for the intensive! We registered for the Cane, Zills and Fan Veils sections of the intensive. What can I say? It was an exciting afternoon. Zahira's cane workshop, with its emphasis on different movements, combinations and the background of cane dancing, was awesome! I love combinations, and find that they're often the birthplace of choreography inspirations. Cane intensive was followed by the zills workshop, which I had been eagerly looking forward to, after attending private lessons on zills and ghawazee dancing by Chelydra in Virginia, US. While Zahira taught the sword workshop, Amber and I took the opportunity to quickly grab lunch at the shawarma restaurant right next to the studio, while excitedly jotting down notes from the previous two workshops (I love taking notes!).

            We returned in time for the last workshop which we had registered for- Ruyah's fan veils intensive. This I found actually helped build on the foundation which Anuka's workshop had provided me. The material, in terms of new movements, was different from Anuka's earlier workshop, and at the end of it, I felt armed with a great set of new movements with fan veils. She also provided a detailed and lovely handout featuring the names of different movement options with the fan veils. This led me to sign up for the next workshop at Dragonfly, Ruyah's Magical Fan Veils workshop in early November. Once again, greatly inspiring. What I find distinctive to Ruyah's approach in the workshops is her emphasis on drilling movements- and this I truly appreciate. She taught a beautiful choreography in the second half of the workshop.

            My final workshop at Dragonfly this year has been Roula Said's Umm Kathoum choreography based on the song "Daret al-Ayaam." This workshop was offered on two different dates, due to its huge popularity and the first one having sold out. I attended the second one; November 23rd. I was delighted to be able to register for the second one- I may have been the last registrant, as right after I registered, the sign on the Dragonfly website said "Sold Out"! Roula's translations proved to be hugely helpful towards my understanding of her choreographic interpretation of this piece, and to truly appreciate her approach towards movement as an extension of the metaphor of the song. I also enjoyed her openness to individuality and different interpretations of her choreography.

            Yes, it has been a good year of workshops! I've attended more workshops outside of the realm of bellydance, but since most of my bellydance ones were those offered by Dragonfly, I thought I would put my reflections down in the blog. I think the workshops offer  an interesting insight into a teacher's pedagogy and I truly respect and have cherished the experience of attending these abovementioned workshops. I look forward to more such delightful offerings by Dragonfly in the future! 

Ashim Ahluwalia’s "Miss Lovely" –Toronto International Film Festival 2012

I had originally watched Ashim Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely at the Toronto International Film Festival 2012. This response comes more than a year late, due to an extremely busy year preparing the doctoral dissertation, my solo show at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and numerous other engagements. However, the film left an impression on me, and I chose to revisit my earlier written reflections on it.

           Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely is set against the backdrop of the Mumbai-based 1980s subversive C-grade Indian cinema, which produced pornographic horror films. During my childhood in India, I remember, during bus travels between the capital city of New Delhi and my uncle’s home in Bareilly, a city a five hour ride away, seeing roadside posters and billboards for films I had never, otherwise heard of­ − films with names such as Diane (translating into “Witch”) or Chudail (also “Witch”!). These posters were usually found on bus stops in the smaller towns of Uttar Pradesh. I often found myself wondering what these films would be like: the painted posters were gory, and usually featured the face of a woman with large, bloodshot eyes. It occurs to me today that perhaps these films may have been part of the C-grade pornographic industry that Ahluwalia’s film is set in. The principal characters in the film are Vicky Duggal and Sonu Duggal, who create C-grade horror films under the banner Duggal Brothers.

         Miss Lovely opens with a striking shot zooming into the  red eyes of a horror film actress. We are soon shown Sonu delivering a few reels to the screening room of a theatre, and later speaking of regretting this action of “delivering” the reel. Sonu is somewhat detached from this system of creating and distributing these horror films and their pornographic after-portions on separate reels, and is desirous of financial independence from it as well as from his manipulative older brother. The name “Duggal Brothers” is somewhat evocative of the “Ramsay Brothers,” a family-based horror film industry which created pulp-oriented B-grade horror movies during the 1980s and 1990s in India. Ironically, while the younger brother Sonu sets out to create a “romance film,” starring his love interest Pinky, he eventually ends up shooting a pornographic film, on the sets of which he is caught and arrested during a police raid.

      The story is not straightforward; as the director himself stated during the question-answer session after the screening, the film disembarks and digresses frequently to richly explore its setting in this underground independent film industry.  An audience member asked about the independent art-house cinema in India, and Ahluwalia responded saying that there was no independent cinema in India when he had started making this film five years ago. Ahluwalia also stated that this film was originally intended as a documentary based on the C-grade film industry, which he stated existed since the 1980s through to the early 2000s, and that further, this industry functioned almost as an anarchic, independent system, separate from mainstream Bollywood cinema.

      He spoke of his challenges in creating the film, one of which was to locate a consistent cast. Since this film was based on individuals who worked in the C-grade industry, he employed a number of cast members from the actual industry itself. This was also partly the reason for his shift from a documentary to a feature film. A number of these actors and associates of the C-grade cinema were more comfortable playing a character than actually speaking about their work and experiences on camera.

 Miss Lovely successfully delivers his vision of crossing over a number of genres, such as noir, pulp, and semi-documentary. At the same time, it lacks a sense of cohesion at moments, perhaps due to his attempt to reference too many different moments of cinematic history. It is not in its filming techniques or editing that the film references a historical moment in cinema industry, like Tarantino’s Grindhouse project. Nor is it a parodic self-reference like the Bollywood-produced Om Shanti Om. An audience member used the term “period piece” to describe the film. Perhaps that term is the most apt description for Ahluwalia’s project. Ahluwalia himself admits that he touches a number of different genres in the film. He said he wanted to keep it serious, and not make it parody or slapstick, which would have been easy to do given the C-grade genre’s predilection for rubber masks, oozing fake blood, and overly dramatic sequences.

On the other hand, the film appears to make a few nods in the direction of Jean-Luc Goddard’s Le Mepris. Like Le Mepris, Ahluwalia’s Miss Lovely features the making of film within the film. Much of the action in Ahluwalia’s film takes place at the sets of the film, or the cinema, or the projection room at the cinema. Miss Lovely also frequently features the backdrop of hotel lobbies, where parties celebrating the release of each Duggal Brothers production is celebrated. These parties are depicted as loud, saturated with drunken men, slippery film producers and distributors, scantily-clad and overly “forward” women wearing flashy 80s glam-style clothes, who sometimes burst out into catfights.  

Ahluwalia’s use of the characters from the C-grade horror films is also reminiscent of the otherworldly look of the Greek status and masks used by Goddard to depict the characters in the film shot within Le Mepris. The sets of these pornographic horror films are spectacular, presenting a combination of mystery, sensuality and the exotic. The visual sequences in Miss Lovely, such as the filming of blood oozing from the face of monsters is very evocative of the visceral nature of the film industry he studies.

Miss Lovely’s thematic focus and setting on the pornographic film sets, and portrayal of male figures of authority as the individuals who exercise control over these female bodies is also reminiscent of  the recurring shots of female nude figures in various lying and lounging positions in Goddard’s Le Mepris. In another striking parallel, while the lead characters are introduced in both films, they do not emerge as focal characters of the films until twenty minutes into the films. In Le Mepris, Camille does not appear until fifteen minutes into the film, and from thereon, her relationship and conflict with Paul becomes the focus of the film. In Miss Lovely, while the character of Sonu is introduced early in the film, he is not foregrounded as the leading character until much later in the film. His lead female, Pinky is not introduced until even later in the film. Once the lead characters are established, however, all other characters subtly tiptoe towards the background. Both Sonu and Paul are characters sandwiched or overshadowed by manipulative figures of authority; Sonu by his older brother Vicky, who is the primary force in creating these films under the banner of the “Duggal Brothers,” and Paul by the American producer Prokosh in Le Mepris.

The idea of the murder in Miss Lovely was actually inspired by a real event which occurred during the period that Ahluwalia made the film. An actress whom he had interviewed, as part of numerous other individuals during his making of the documentary, had been later found murdered. Ahluwalia spoke of how this is a recurring event in every cinema industry, when life begins to emulate films. Actors, actresses, directors and producers begin to live larger-than-life existences both on-screen as well as off-screen. He spoke of the trope of a struggling and emerging actress being found murdered, citing the example of the Black Dahlia.

            As much as I’m awed by the rich visual spectacle that some of his scenes offer, and as much as I think this film is a signal film in Indian cinema in terms of its subject matter and playful and slippages into and out of different cinematic genres, I am left  wondering at some parts of the film.  The journey of the protagonist  is a long and winding journey. How, when, why and by whom was the actress killed? Did Pinky have a previous liason with Vicky? Many questions remain unanswered. The film however does offer a satisfying glimpse into the world of the underground film in India.

Toronto European Union Film Festival

One of the things I enjoy most about large cities like Toronto is the variety of options, in terms of things to experience on a budget or for free. One of these events is the European Union Film Festival (http://www.eutorontofilmfest.ca/). I first heard about this festival in 2010. I had missed it that year and have had performances or been away from Toronto during the festival dates over the last two years, but I'm looking toward attending some of the screenings this year. Among the ones I plan to attend are:

1) Oh Boy (Jan Ole Gerster, Germany) - Friday, November 15 at 6:30 pm
(http://www.eutorontofilmfest.ca/index.php/films/item/oh-boy)

This seems like a fun film. BlogTO mentions among the top 5 films to watch out for at this year's festival: (http://www.blogto.com/film/2013/11/5_films_to_watch_at_the_2013_european_union_film_fest/)

 Also, the date coincides with my birthday, so I've made it part of my planned birthday activities for the day (followed by dinner/drinks in the area).

2) Bajari: Gypsy Barcelona (Eva Vila, Spain)- Sunday, November 17 at 6:00 pm
(http://www.eutorontofilmfest.ca/index.php/films/item/bajari)

This seems to be the only dance-centered film in the festival. Also, as someone who has always been interested in the politics of representation of different communities and social classes within dance, I look forward to watching this. 

December 2013: Dancing and Defending

December 2013 should be an interesting month. A few reasons:

The book Geographies of Dance: Body, Movement and Corporeal Negotiations, containing my first publication, in the form of a chapter, is scheduled to be released on December 16: www.amazon.com/Geographies-Dance-Movement-Corporeal-Negotiations/dp/0739171844

I am likely to be defending my doctoral dissertation! (titled "The Debaprasad Das Tradition: Reconsidering the Narrative of Classical Indian Odissi Dance History")

On December 7, I perform at REH'MA's Intercultural Diversity Festival at Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto. I look forward to meeting the diverse community of fellow performers there.