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 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

Dance of the Night Sky

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.

transition

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.

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.