Raka Maitra (India / Singapore)

Boundaries

Performances:
17 August 2007
3.30pm and 8pm
Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore

Synopsis:

Boundaries within boundaries within boundaries…….there’ll always be boundaries. Would there be freedom without these boundaries?
Can we ever come out of these boundaries?
“Freedom is like steam useless unless confined”.

Dreams
“Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field frozen with snow”
(By Langston Hughes)

Choreography: Raka Maitra
Music: Philip Tan
Video Art: Ina Conradi
Vocal: Bhagya Murthy

RAKA MAITRA
Choreographer / Dancer

Raka Maitra graduated with a diploma in Performing Arts from the Children’s Little Theatre, Kolkata. She then went on to specialize in Odissi under Padmashree Madhavi Mudgal and the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mahapatra, as well as Serraikella Chhau under Guru Sashadhar Acharya. Raka calls herself a dancer without the classifications of classical or contemporary. Her journey is an exploration, and in her works one will find various influences of Odissi, Chhau ,Kalari and Yoga.

Raka received the Shringarmai, a national level award, for Odissi from the Sur Shringar Sampad in Mumbai in 1999, and has been featured in many important festivals around the world, such as the “Mystique Of India” festival in Washington, the “2nd International Odissi festival” in Washington, “Nrityanjali” in Kiev, the “India Festival” at Salamanca, the “Jhankar Festival” in Virginia, the “Cahaya Sutra” in Kuala Lumpur, and the “India Festival” in Sao Paolo.

In the last few years, Raka has organised and co-choreographed the contemporary production ‘Masks of Gods’ at Kamani in Delhi, and choreographed and produced ‘Karmayoga’ at Esplanade Theatre Studio. Raka also co-organised the “Grey Festival - where nothing’s black or white”, a contemporary Indian dance festival with performances, workshops, screening and forum.

Current initiatives of Raka include the exploration of the different dimensions of Indian contemporary dance, the creation of movements from Odissi and Chhua under the mentorship of Sardon W. Kusumo, as well as research on how the different martial art forms in India developed into stylized dance forms. She also continues her Odissi training under Smt. Madhavi Mudgal and Daksha Mashruwala.

BHAGYA MURTHY
Vocalist

Born in India in a traditional musicians’ family, Bhagya Murthy began to study Karnatic Music at a very early age and graduated from Bangalore University Faculty of Arts. Bhagya furthered her advance training under the eminent teacher Sri. M.Prabhakar and became an artiste of All India Radio.

Bhagya has sung for various forms of dances, dance dramas and music concerts in Singapore and has become popular in Singapore Radio & Television. To date, she has performed as the main vocalist in more than 150 Bharathanatyam dance debuts with her melodious voice.

INA CONRADI
Visual Artist

Ina Conradi, a mixed media artist born in Belgrade, Serbia, received an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 1989. Her work has been commissioned for the World Trade Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Europe, is in private collections and has been the subject of solo gallery exhibits in Europe and Japan.

Living, working and teaching in Los Angeles from 1996 to 2005, she is currently teaching at School of Art Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her body of work consists of painting, drawing, and unique monumental textile sculptures. In her current work cycles, ‘Natural System: Chaos and Harmony’ and ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ she explores imagery created within the field of digital art.

PHILIP TAN
Composer / Arranger / Keyboardist / Percussionist

Philip Tan, a critically acclaimed musician/composer/performer/educator/music-consultant, has been dedicated to his craft for the last decade. Philip defies pigeon-holing (classical symphony, percussion, fusion, ethnic, electronic, jazz), creating works that are aesthetically adventurous and entertaining. He pushes the boundaries of 'live music' to new heights with his powerful on-stage antics that fuse theatre, drama, dance, performance-art and even sculpture (with his eco-friendly home-made 'instruments').

His collaborations with film and art-installation are showcased internationally in film festivals and biennales. His works have been performed and presented with great credits in many parts of Europe, USA, and Asia. In 2003 and 2005, Philip received the Life! Theatre’s Best Sound Award for his contribution to theatre music composition. He is currently the Composer-in-residence of the Singapore Wind Symphony Percussion Ensemble.