Karma Dance’s latest dance theatre piece, Temple of Desire, brought together an ensemble of 16 classically-trained Bharatanatyam dancers to connect their movement history with modern understandings, to explore reaching moksha (spiritual liberation) through kama (desire).
What if guiltless pleasure led to the divine? What if we celebrated, rather than chastely clothed, the sensual forms of our deities? These questions are ripe with potential in the hands of Karma Dance, a company known for subversively reimagining Indian classical dance through a contemporary queer lens and captivating sell-out Fringe Festival crowds for over a decade.
This intertwining of sensual and spiritual is not a new conceit, but rather ancient wisdom that has been obscured by shame and guilt over time, as is introduced in the piece’s opening monologue.
Inside the Malthouse Theatre, the work certainly felt like a radical reclamation of a time and space beyond colonial stigma, a proud freeing of brown bodies from fetishisation and gendered binaries, a transcendent liberation of brown desire.Â
The opening image of a gender-transcendent deity descending to earth – performed almost entirely with backs to audience just as temple dancers would have – was expertly crafted, teasing us with glimpses of a hallowed gathering, while a suggestive flower wielding solo with sleeping dancers aptly embodied the sexuality of the divine, cheekily reminiscent of a wet dream.Â
The middle of the piece brought a tonal shift: the desecration of the liberated, otherworldly realm as the forces of stigma infiltrated. A feminine divine appeared, welcomed with a lengthy adornment, who then slayed adversaries, lost their ornamentations and returned to their heavenly abode – a reimagining of Mahishasura Mardhini. There’s a sense this sequence was more than what it seemed, though what exactly this represents was a little too ambiguous at times. Â
Momentum was regained with the strongest image of the piece, the shedding of ideas of generational shame and modesty, represented simply and beautifully through a black shroud. A transcendent, euphoric finale erupted, a recovering of the ethereal space and an embracing of unapologetic sensuality, a modern ‘temple of desire’.
Director Govind Pillai’s eye for composition is phenomenal, arranging unison mudras and seamless formations that were visually striking. The ensemble performed with energy and precision, able to leap from disciplined nritta to Bollywood-esque hedonism.Â
Equally transfixing were the lighting, sound and set design, which greatly enhanced the magical atmosphere. Energetic fusion beats and spectacular tessellations of blues and pinks were sent bouncing around the room by dazzling kandeels (lanterns) and mirrorballs suspended from the ceiling – it was simply breathtaking.Â
Read: Sonic and graphic reviews: Black Holes and XYZZY, Scienceworks Planetarium
Overall, Temple of Desire was a visually splendid spectacle, a celebration of the beauty of Indian classical dance: a realm mingling holy exaltation and sensual mystery.
Temple of Desire
Malthouse Theatre
Director: Govind Pillai
Producer: Manjusha Manjusha
Lighting Designer: Max Woods
Social Media: Joshinder Chaggar
Digital Art: Shelley O’Meara
Photographer: James Henry
Videographer: Jeff Sheppard
Set Designer: Jonathan Fae
DJ: DJ Goddess Naavikaran
Performed by: Sahithi Chintakunta, Neptune Henriksen, Veena Kadayaprath, Jaya Karan, Govind Pillai, Divya Raghavan, Ramya Raghavan, Saranya Saravanan, Sangeeta Sathyanath, Davina Shaji, Ambika Shivaramu, Divya Shreejit Kumar, Aparna Subramaniam, Archana Subramaniam, Sindusa Wignarajan, Arulselvam Subramaniam
Temple of Desire was performed 4-5 October 2024 as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
