Photo: Miles Brokenshire
About the Artistic Director:
Hari Krishnan is an internationally respected dancer, choreographer, teacher and dance scholar. He is an award winning dance-maker who combines classical elegance and populist echoes. Krishnan has trained with hereditary dance masters including K.P. Kittappa Pillai & R. Muttukkannammal, specializing in devadasi (courtesan) dance and contemporary abstractions of Bharatanatyam. He is World Dance Artist-in-Residence at the Department of Dance in Wesleyan University (Connecticut). Hari Krishnan is frequently commissioned as a forward thinking, innovative choreographer with an original edge to create works in the US, UK, Canada, Singapore and India.
He holds a master's degree in Dance from York University (Toronto) and is currently completing his PhD in the dance department at Texas Woman’s University. Krishnan's research areas include colonialism, post-colonialism and Indian dance, globalization and the arts of India, Bharatanatyam in Tamil cinema and the history of devadasi dance traditions in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh, South India. He is a regular contributor to academic conferences on cultural history and dance around the world.
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"Without a doubt, the choreography of Krishnan has an inspired, even genius quality to it.”
– Stephen Preece, The Record
“Hari Krishnan the maverick gadfly is aggressively iconoclastic.” – Michael Crabb, Toronto Star
As a prologue to Quicksand, nine brief classical solos alternate between complex rhythmic dance and poetic textual interpretation, showcasing the Navarasa – love, disgust, compassion, valour, humour, fear, wonder, anger and peace.
"In the rambunctiously provocative Quicksand – the very notion of cultural distinction is jettisoned as a multiracial cast of 10 bare-chested men – mash the Navarasa, or nine archetypal moods popular in Indian dance, into a techno-hip, strutting declaration of freedom from the constraints of tradition and conventional sexuality. Self-expression is the thematic link between Quicksand's cascade of bold, surging ensembles and more contemplative solos." – Michael Crabb, Toronto Star
"Intriguing... scorching... a raucous blend of classical steps, both Western and Indian." – The New York Times