Welcome to Chaturangan

Chaturangan have been invited by St Helens Council to present 'Traces of Wings' as part of a day of events at St Helen's Central Library on Monday 16th May. Traces of Wings is a further development of Chaturangan's dementia and family friendly performances. We're delighted to be working with St Helen's Council to lend support to this event which is part of Dementia Awareness Week (15-21 May). An excerpt of the full show will be showing at 11am and 3pm. Further information about the day can be found at http://www.sthelens.gov.uk/newsroom/2016/05/09/libraries-support-dementia-awareness-week/
Chaturangan
believes culturally diverse dance to be an integral part of the
social and cultural fabric of 21st century British culture.

[Photo by Vipul Sangoi]
Chaturangan's
initiatives support the development of South Asian dance in particular
and other dance forms in general.
Chaturangan delivers
- health and well-being initiatives with particular focus on older
people

- community and educational projects

- cross-arts dance-theatre productions for touring

- specially developed resources to support on-going activities
- international conferences on issues of major contemporary concern

Chaturangan works in partnership with
- Liverpool Hope University
- Foundation for Community Dance
- National Museums Liverpool
- Sampad
- Foundation for Arts and Creative Technology
- Merseyside Dance Initiative
- Liverpool John Moores University
- Akademi
- Kadam
Chaturangan acknowledges support from the Arts Council England for their generous support throughout its development.
Chaturangan's
artistic director is Bisakha Sarker.
See elsewhere
for a more formal statement of our aims
and objectives. |
Latest news March 2019
Unseen Designs
Wednesday 27th March

See here or here for further details.
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Bisakha's report on her visit to Canada on a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust fellowship is here.
Chaturangan presented the second culturally diverse cross arts performance as part of Phase II of the Fleeting Moments project. The performance specially welcomed people living with dementia, and their companions, with the aim of enriching their quality of life.
This family and dementia friendly professional public performance was produced through a 3-day choreolab bringing together dancers, musicians, artists, those living with dementia and their care-partners at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. It was a heart warming joyous dance and music performance enjoyed by all.
Fleeting moments was a performance to lift our collective spirits.
It includes short sections of Indian, Chinese and Contemporary dance to live music, with two breaks and opportunities for sensitively led audience participation.
Artists taking part: Fenfen Huang, Anusha Subramanyam, Mary Pearson, Steve Boyland and Chris Davies.
See summary here and more information here.
The Impact of this artistic initiative for the care of dementia will be evaluated by Julie Hanna.


Landmark initiatives
In December
2010 Chaturangan, in partnership with MDI
and the Foundation
for Community Dance, held the first national dance and dementia
conference in Liverpool, with particular focus on the rôle of dance
in the care of dementia.
This innovative conference was a multi-disciplinary arts event combining
academic papers, keynote dances, presentations of art based research by
leading practitioners and specially commissioned dance performances and
films.The conference celebrated best practice in this field and brings
together a diverse range of artists, health and medical professionals,
care staff, biomedical researchers, arts organisations and friends and
families of those living with dementia.
transition was a two-day
conference investigating heritage through dance
held in partnership with Sampad and the National Museums Liverpool
7th & 8th March 2008 at the World Museum Liverpool
Nationally acclaimed
Artistic Director, Bisakha Sarker, presented a full programme of events
with thought provoking lectures and challenging debates. Taking dance
as its focal point this two day conference explored and examined what
heritage means in today's society.
For an archive
of conference information, see here.
The
conference was managed by the Aspire Trust Ltd. Email
Aspire Trust.
2006
was designated "Year of Performance" by Liverpool Culture Company
as part of the build-up to the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008.
In response to this, Chaturangan ran a conference entitled Marks
of time in partnership with Hope University. The conference
explored appropriate performance practice in advancing years, and was
held on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th January 2007.
"The
Marks of Time conference was a great success. We had over 80 participants
as well as many performers, and the event was inspirational for all concerned.
The highlight was the performance by Bisakha Sarker on the Friday evening,
with musical accompaniment by Chris Davies. A few phrases from the conference
will remain in my memory: "Brightness of Life"; "Add
life to years as well as years to life". Thanks to all of Chaturangan
and Aspire Trust for the work they put into the organisation. " -
Eric Foxley
For the conference
schedule and an archive of conference information click here.
For links to some of the submitted papers click here.
Videos from the conference can be found at the Marks Of Time blog - www.marksoftime.blogspot.com.
All 13
of the Marks Of Time 2007 performances are now archived as a set of 3
DVDs. For more details contact marksoftime@luden.co.uk
.
Arts
in Health
Waiting
A project in conjunction with Liverpool Primary Care Trust. Chaturangan
has provided a creative approach responding to the differing needs of
people in ‘waiting’ settings. We worked with artists experienced
in working sensitively with people in different situations. The first
phase of the project comprised six sessions in different in six different
situations (for example a hospital ward, a clinic, a hospice and a patient
support group) and the making of a film "Precious" by Gina Czarnecki
suitable for showing in waiting rooms. The second phase will focus on
the mental health area, and the development of an interactive installation
of the film "Precious". The film was shown by the Liverpool
Culture Company at the UK Public Health Conference at the Echo Arena in
Liverpool in April 2008.
The full Waiting project was delivered by Fact, Comedy Trust and Chaturangan.
Liverpool Culture Company has produced a "coffee-table" book
summing up the work of the whole project, and distributed it to all GP
surgeries in Liverpool.
Warrington film project for residential
homes
Warrington Borough
Council commissioned Bisakha to create an exercise video suitable for
use in residential home, and dance groups for the over-50s. As part of
the project Chris Davis and Bisakha worked in residential homes and with
local mature dance groups. There will be four films, three suitable for
chair-based exercise and one for more mobile participants. The emphasis
is on creativity. The films will be webcast when ready.
Dignity
Bisakha provided a one-day workshop for "The Place" theatre.The
project looked at working with older people in hospitals.
Blythe House Day Hospice
See here for details
of Chaturangan's performance at Blythe House Day Hospice in Buxton.
2004 was
celebrated as year of "Faith in one City"by Liverpool
Culture Company. In response Chaturangan produced "Sacred
Move", a soulful production of new dance, live music and
spoken words. Chaturangan has created an initiative that celebrates
Liverpool’s diverse cultural and devotional heritage. The
first two performances took place in Liverpool's two cathedrals
in 2004.
In 2005, Liverpool
Culture Company's "Year of the Sea", Chaturangan toured
"Across
the Sea", a programme of extensive community projects together
with a performance of "Sacred Move" to Cork (European
Capital of Culture 2005).
In January
2007, at the invitation of Liverpool Culture Company, Chaturangan
performed “Sacred
Move” at the St George's Hall, Liverpool to launch their
cultural programme for 2007.
This
is a Planetarium show based on an ancient Indian myth about the origin
of the Plough, the Pleiades and the double stars Alcar and Mizar.
It
was produced as a collaboration between Bisakha Sarker, William Radice,
Arun Ghosh, Dan Soul and Kali Dass.
The installation
was shown every Sunday afternoon through 2006 and 2007 at the Planetarium.
Our
work is supported by, among others

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