Art of the Snake and Crane

Daksha Sheth Dance Company is a Indian dance company founded by Daksha Sheth, who started her dance career in Kathak, and has since incorporated Chhau and other Indian traditions into her work.

Located in Kerala, because it's better to live in a cheap and tropical paradise as opposed to the expensive, smoggy cities of India, DSDC tours mostly in Asia and Europe. The last time they were in North America was in 1993, according to the post-show Q&A. Invited by the Kalanidhi organization as part of the Spring Festival of Indian Dance, DSDC presented their most famous work Sarpagati - The Way of the Serpent.

Inspired by yoga, acrobatics, rope mallakhamb, and the Indian martial arts Karalippayatu, the performance centers upon snake worship in India: from Ananta the world snake to Kundalini, the energy serpent that coils at the sit-bone and spirals up the spine.

Moving symbolically through the three lower Chakras, the show presents a person's journey (and by extension, humanity's) from materialism to enlightenment. The music was provided by Indian drums, flutes, Tibetan singing bowls, rain sticks, and other percussive instruments.

It was quite a beautiful and inspiring show for me to see such wonderful yoga postures incorporated into the performance. As well, to see where some of the postures might have arisen. Surely, the warrior poses came from the Indian martial arts!

My three most favourite memories of the evening: first, the fierceness of the martial arts movement. And yet in them, a hint of their transformation into yogic postures. Second, the gorgeous partnering between the male and female dancer during the second Chakra segment to represent union between the dormant male principle with shakti, the active female principal. Compared to this, Acro yoga is a joke. Finally, the image of a man, hanging 30 feet up in the air by a rope, in full lotus. As close to levitation as a person will ever achieve.

You can see bits and pieces of Sarpagati in this promotional video for DSDC. I hope there will be a DVD release at some time or better yet, their return to North America. As a bit of trivia, the main female dancer and daughter of Daksha Sheth, Isha Sharvani, has a minor career in Bollywood.