Warrington film project

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.

Waiting

"This is a Chaturangan initiative in response to Liverpool Culture Company's “Story of Waiting” strand in their “Creative Health” programme.

The “Story of Waiting” programme is a partnership between Liverpool Culture Company, Liverpool Primary Care NHS Trust, Mersey Care NHS Trust and other Health Partners. It is being delivered by Chaturangan, The Comedy Trust and FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology). As a part of this project Chaturangan is taking multicultural participatory activities including dance music ,visual arts and storytelling to various health settings where people experience different types of stress from waiting . So far the company has taken this work to Royal Liverpool Hospital, Woodlands Hospice in Fazakerley hospital, Creative Alternative ,Southport and children’s Hospice Claire House. As part of this project, the company has also produced a film suitable for screening in‘Waiting Areas’, places in healthcare settings where people are required to wait for services. The film from the project ‘PRECIOUS ‘ made by Gina Czarnecki was installed in two sites in the Royal Liverpool Hospital .

Jersey Inter-Cultural dialogue

The offer for this tour came as a result of one of the teachers suddenly discovering our website. With the help of Kalithasan Chandrasegaram, we delivered Indian dance workshops in a number of Jersey schools. On each of the four days the host school invited classes of students from other nearby schools. The tour was a great success.

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.

2007 Sacred Move

Sacred Move is a soulful evening of new dance, live music and spoken words to mark "Faith in One City". It was devised by Bisakha Sarker with support from David Heirons.

The "Sacred Move" project demonstrates the presence of different faiths in the City. We achieve this by working in partnership with these faiths and have created a quality performance piece. We also initiated an outreach programme to inspire inclusive spirituality. The project encourages investment in culturally diverse artists to prepare them to take a fuller part in the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 celebration. The project builds on strategic collaborations with artists outside the region to raise the national profile of artists from Merseyside and thereby improving their job opportunities.

Chaturangan has created a project that celebrates Liverpool’s diverse cultural and devotional heritage. The project uses dance as a medium to bring these diverse faiths and traditions together and results in a performance in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

The performance isl a moving and spectacular artistic expression that can truly reflect the spirit of ‘Faith in One City’. It is a multi-faith work with contemporary artistic influence and gives aspiration to all including those who were born in Liverpool and those who have adopted it as their home.

Dance of the Night Sky

On Saturday 11th March 2006 at 12 noon Chaturangan launched its dance installation programme "Dance of the Night Sky" for Liverpool Planetarium. 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. The installation was shown every Sunday afternoon through 2006 and 2007 at the Planetarium.

" I found the museum show an intelligent and alchemical synthesis of dance, myth and science. The show was not only very entertaining, but educational on both a cultural and scientific level. The filmed dance/drama performances projected onto the planetarium ceiling against a back drop of the night sky showed high quality expressive / creative Indian dance, which at the same time was traditional and highly archetypal." - Paul Ishtar

Shift event

Small Practice Association

On 30th September Chaturangan presented "Shift" at a national meeting of the SPA (Small Practice Association). "Shift" is a programme of dance, music and poetry reflecting current trends in South Asian Dance, performed by Levi Tafari, Arun Ghosh, Kali Dass and Sri Sarker.