THE DANCING PEOPLE

FOUNDED BY SHAGUN BUTANI AND RAKA MAITRA

Raka Maitra and Shagun Butani launch their organization The Dancing People with the intention to present traditional forms of dance with modern and contemporary sensibilities so that it may reach across to more people.

"The Masks of God"

Inspired by the delightful masked dance form of Seraikella Chhau and Roberto Calasso's critically acclaimed novel KA, three dancers and one actor get together in "The Masks of God". Dance and dialogue, movement reflections and shadows, faces and masks, all come together to churn out one story after another. Stories that we see in our dreams and their reflections in our lives.

Conceptualized by Shagun Butani The Masks of God draws from a traditional background in Chhau and Odissi and her Modern dance training in New York. It has Soumyabrata Choudhary, of the "WE" theatre group, Sushant Acharya, Raka Maitra and Shagun Butani performing in it.

GS RAJAN adds to the show with his musical capabilities of an avant garde composer to fuse traditional and modern. Shashadhar Acharya with his seemingly infinite knowledge of the tradition and his modern approach has inspired this endeavour.

"Goddess"

An idol maker collects mud from a brothel.
TO make a deity, adorn it and then worship it. A family, participating in a ritual, worship nine little girls.
And symbolically The Goddess. The Feminine principle.
The feminine.
The female.
The Woman.
But a woman is raped.
Sometimes made to walk naked through a village street
A young bride burnt,
A prostitute scorned, and so
The Goddess Falls.