A development initiative for South Asian Dance in the North West

Some of Chaturangan's recent projects

Click here for more details.
For further information or to register
email Aspire Trust
or contact Clare at Aspire Trust, Valkyrie Lodge, 30 Valkyrie Road, Wallasey CH45 4RJ
tel 0151 639 9231

Pieces of Memory - Pieces of Map  

Chaturangan is working in partnership with Diane Amans, the founder of Freedom in Dance, well known for her work in training staff in health and social care and managing dance projects in health settings. Our aim is to produce a body of work reflecting on “release from restrictions” from an artistic perspective. The artists will draw on strengths from each other's dance practices, life experience and substantial knowledge of working with older people in a wide range of situations to create this new dance piece.

a different tune or the same old song
national seminar
The seminar was a partnership with Fact and considered how children’s work and festivals are applying new technology and addressing cultural diversity nationally.

Making space
23rd October 2009 6.30pm

An evening for making space to learn and enjoy Indian dance and story telling with Bisakha Sarker and music with Chris Davies was held at Liverpool Well Being Centre on Friday 23rd October

Tropical Tales
aka Care and Cure
starting 20th May 2010

Tropical Tales is a cross arts project. The idea is to collect stories from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and work with a creative team of established artists (painters, poets, musicians, dance and spoken word performers) to produce resource materials.

The project starts on 20th May with an evening of storytelling by Debjani Chatterjee on the theme of "health and wellbeing". There will be six break out groups each led by an artist or a scientist where, in a less formal atmosphere, the smaller group will exchange their stories. Each group leader will use their artistic or scientific perception to choose stories which will have an appeal to the wider population and will represent diverse tastes.

Diverse Dance

Chaturangan and Encourage North West (previously known as Dark Horse Venture) supported by St Mary’s Millenium Centre provided divers dance (Indian, Chinese and Black dance) and story sessions. Taster sessions were provided at the Milennium Centre,
local care homes and for the local Stroke Support Group and other organistaions.

 

Chaturangan

Chaturangan is a development initiative for South Asian Dance in the North West.

Chaturangan initiates and supports the development of South Asian dance – from the popular to the spiritual – to make an impact on the social and cultural fabric of the North West of England.

Vision

  • Chaturangan will work towards increasing the scope for South Asian dance in performance, education, training and community initiatives.
  • Chaturangan will address the training needs of artists to ensure high quality artistic output.
  • Chaturangan will influence the insurgence of energy to create a greater visibility in the mainstream of South Asian dance in the region and beyond.

See elsewhere for a more formal statement of our aims and objectives.

  Me-time

Me-time is a community dance project for mothers of children with disability who attend the Everton Children & Family Centre.

The plan was to offer the group the possibility of new activities. They would learn Indian dance movements, and then give a presentation to their children in the nursery. The group responded enthusiastically to the idea of learning a new style of dance, but was reluctant to perform. They became interested in the whole cultural background of the dance. Every community dance project has to be sensitive to the needs of the participants.

Alongside their regular dance sessions we introduced other activities such as dressing up in Indian clothes, jewellery making and creating fun objects for the children from fruit and vegetables. The process then gathered its own momentum, and the group accepted an invitation to visit Fact, a centre for digital arts, for a photoshoot by a professional photographer. Here they also attended a children's performance of 'In search of a different tune'. This visit inspired them to perform for their children, a prospect that they had initally declined.

a different tune - touring dance theatre for children

A co-production with "Fuse"

"A Different Tune" imaginatively and innovatively relates through a dance, drama and music fusion the story of a group of animal friends, of their falling out, making up up and gaining self-esteem. The story comes alive through dance from across the world and live music within a mesmerizing surrounding.

"A Different Tune" is touring at various North-West venues from 11th ro 21st June 2009.



Arts in Health

Waiting

A project funded by Liverpool Culture Company 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.

Bisakha meeting the Queen during a visit to the Waiting project
Photo © Liverpool Echo
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.

Dance of the Night Sky

Dance of the Night SkyThis 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.


transition

Flyer fronttransition 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.

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 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).



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 an archive of conference information click here. For links to some of the submitted papers click here.

Jersey Educational Tour Inter-Cultural dialogue - 29th April to 3rd May 2008

Worksheet for Jersey

Following the success of their previous tour of Jersey, Bisakha Sarker and Kali Dass were invited to deliver another week-long education project. The work concentrated on teacher training so that local teachers were enabled to continue the work to promote cultural diversity. This programme involved over 100 teachers from 22 primary schools.

Each of the training sessions included an introduction to the basics of Indian dance and storyletting for education, familiarisation with the worksheets and a practical session. In the practical sessions the teachers observed us working with the children, and received some hands-on training.

One of these sessions was exclusively focussed on the training of parent mentors.

In addition Jersey Arts centre invited Chaturangan to run two workshops open to the public.


Knowsley well-being now 

Through Indian dance, music & storytelling we addressed the physical and mental well-being of older people in the Huyton, Kirby and Halewood areas of Knowsley.

On the final day of each project, the group watched a culturally diverse performance of dance, music and storytelling. The performances included Indian, Chinese, African and contemporary Western dance, and stories from Indian, China, Africa and Ireland.

A training day was organised to familiarise those within the sector with this style of working.

A resourse pack has been prepared, including a specially commissioned music CD (by Chris Davies) and a visual aid of dance movements for limited mobility (by Eimear Kavanagh).


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Page last updated 04-Jan-2016 - Comments on the website welcome by Eric Foxley at the Dunkirk Arts Centre
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