Rehearsals for Tomorrow takes us through the workshops and rehearsals of the Brave New World of Contemporary Dancers in India. “Rehearsals” moves from established studios like Attakkalari in Bangalore and the Drishtikon Dance Foundation in Haryana, to experimental centres like Gati, in Delhi .
While the established ‘Greats’ of the dance world, Jayachandran Palazhy and Aditi Mangaldas have a profound faith in the need for training in traditional forms, they too believe , like their younger counterparts, in the first principle of Contemporary dance - that the body need not fit itself into a pre determined form; rather, the form must be used to embody convictions of the dancer/choreographer.
Extracts from the performances of Preethi Athreya, Surjit Nongmeikapam, Mandeep Raikhy, Mirra Arun, demonstrate how they are transforming established dance practices by re-thinking the body and exploring new techniques of movement, bringing the personal and the political into new choreographies.