Leela Foundation: Pravaha – Changing Canvases

PRAVAHA: Changing Canvases is a Bharatanatyam performance divided into two halves. The first half challenges both the dancer and the dancing body to oscillate between individual identity and philosophical concept, seeking an experiential state through unique pieces selected from the Bharatanatyam repertoire.

The second half presents a solo dance-drama called Debotar Grash, based on Tagore’s poem of the same name. Within the framework of Debotar Grash, the emotional landscape of a child’s innocence and a mother’s love is depicted, incorporating excerpts from The Crescent Moon, ‘Bir Purush/Hero’, ‘My Song’, and ‘The End’. The performance blends the idiom of Bharatanatyam with spoken words, juxtaposing English poems against the original Bengali, accompanied by Hindustani music and Karnatic percussion ensemble to enrich the audio-visual texture of the narrative.