The Gati Forum

This IFA New Performance grant provides partial support for a four-month residency for emerging choreographers titled ‘Gati Summer Dance Residency 2010’ (GSDR 2010). The residency will be run by the Gati Forum, a Delhi-based organisation committed to creating a space to facilitate interactions and exchanges among independent choreographers and dancers.

Despite the growth of contemporary dance in India, innovative choreographic projects fail to realise their potential due to the virtual absence of systems that facilitate young choreographers to experiment and develop their skills, and the lack of critical engagement with their creative process of dance making. The key thrust of the GSDR, therefore, is to help emerging choreographers to explore and test their creative ideas, develop their choreographic skills and build a working methodology for dance creation.

GSDR 2010 will feature a weeklong introductory session. Also, technical requirements such as for light and costume designing will be fully taken care of. A built-in mentorship programme will play a key role in the 2010 residency. The resident artists will each be paired with mentors who will work with them over a period of ten weeks and participate in a progressive series of intensive sessions.

A major role of mentors will be to help resident choreographers develop a critical eye toward their work. For this year, Maya Rao (theatre director and actor), Amitesh Grover (multi-media artist) and Anusha Lall (choreographer and dancer) will be the mentors. They will introduce ideas and perspectives from their respective performance practices and stimulate and steer the resident artists’ exploration and experimentation. In addition to the core mentor group, the residency will invite ‘guest mentors’ to advise the resident artists on lighting design, sound and the visual arts.

For GSDR 2010, three or four choreographers with an interest in pursuing experiments in classical and/or contemporary dance forms will be chosen from different parts of the country to be artists-in-residence. In addition to regular rehearsals, the residents will get an opportunity to attend workshops, discussions and joint presentations. The residency will culminate with the presentation of original pieces of solo or ensemble performances by the resident artists in New Delhi.