INDIA, Week Three (August 10-16): Siddhartha Central School

750 million people around the world lack clean drinking water – roughly one in every nine people. The water crisis is our number one global risk based on impact to society according to the World Economic Forum (www.water.org/water-crisis). In India, over half of the rivers are polluted, an estimated 75% of the surface water is polluted and water pollution accounts for over 500 deaths every day.  

Water Cyphers: Art, Performance, Science and is a pilot for an international arts training, outreach and mini-festival program focused on sharing water stories through theater, music and dance. Along with community members and artists from Kochi and Kollam, our international team gathers stories, creates dances and writes music that illuminates these critical concerns.  Public performances at Amrita University on August 12 at 4:30pm, August 14 at 3:30pm at Siddhartha Central School in Kollam in and at Sacred Heart College in Kochi on Aug 24 and 25.  

#water

#india

#kollam

#siddhartha

#theater

#dance

#music

#science

#internationalcollaboration

#amma

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WATER WORKSHOPS, Week Three 

This week our team completed and premiered our piece River to River at Amritapuri University for a small student audience. The students from the workshop also performed  (to applause and cheers.) The college was so helpful in executing this multi-cultural, multi-media theater piece they must be applauded as well – our demands are unique.

(NOTE: Last week, I wrote about never sweating so much as I did in kalare class, but at dress rehearsal for the Amritapuri performance sweat was literally pouring off my head onto the ELECTRIC keyboard. I had to twist my body so the sweat would flow onto the floor because I was afraid I might short out the electrical system.)

Working with the students at Amritapuri University was incredible-they are smart, brave, creative, sincere, curious, respectful and full of joy. Exchanging art and ideas with them was an unforgettable experience

Our team also began work on another piece called The River is a Line. Kanta, our director, has asked that we explore the more scientific and technological aspects of water environments.  She introduced us to a book called Design in the Terrain of Water by Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha.  In the book they discuss many of the themes we’ve been exploring including “the water to which people are increasingly turning to find innovative solutions to water scarcity, pollution, aquifer depletion and other problems that are assuming center stage in local and global politics, dynamics, and fears.” 

Kanta has asked me to write a humorous piece about Leonardo da Vinci and his work/obsession with hydraulics.  I will most likely be playing da Vinci as well so I’m trying to write in a lot of other characters. Anyway, if you’ve got any funny da Vinci stories…

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HUGGING AMMA

Last week, I wrote about the chancellor of the University and founder of the Ashram – a very famous Hindu leader called Amma (the “hugging saint”.)  It is estimated that she has hugged nearly 50 million people worldwide.

Sunday night was our turn to hug Amma. Everyone experienced something a little different and my experience was fittingly awkward and hilarious at the same time. (Maybe Amma really does understand everyone who comes into her presence.)

[NOTE: In order to better represent the diverse spiritual experiences people have, I have included another perspective on Amma from one of the workshop participants, Sadanand Sebastian.]

MY PERSPECTIVE: THE HUG STREAM

Amma sits in a chair center-stage in a large yet inauspicious outdoor auditorium.  There is a smaller stage in front of her where a rotating group of musicians sing Hindi hymns (which I love.)

We surrendered our electronic devices, go through a security scan and are escorted backstage where there are rows of chairs leading up to Amma. The rows begin on either side of the stage and each person begins in the back chair and works their way to the front. (Imagine a very methodical game of musical chairs where no chairs get taken away.) We are told by Prichant Swami that we can ask Amma anything – personal questions, health questions, anything.

When I finely make it to the front row, a young boy begins singing one of the hymns. He has one of most clarion and distinct voices I can remember.  It reminds me of a young Andrew Penning singing the opening “ah’s” in Amahl and the Night Visitor.  It puts me in a trance.

The rows of chairs coming from stage left and right converge at Amma’s feet and before receiving their hug, people kneel down in front of her alternating left and right, back and forth. There are about five or so “hug handlers” around her making sure things go as smoothly and efficiently as possible. I kneel down and standing next to me is a ninety-year-old woman. She is so small that she and my torso are the same height. She can’t really kneel so one of the devotees bring her a small stool.

Once I enter the hug stream, things move quickly with a dizzying sense of urgency.  I am very very very afraid I am going to fall on the old woman and crush her with my massive frame.  Right there at the feet of Amma.  The “hug heard ’round the world!” I insist she go first but they won’t let her.  One of the handlers looks at me and asks: “Speak English?”

“British” I reply for reasons that will forever remain a mystery to me.

“You with the dancers?” I nod as he turns to talk to Amma.

“No,wait!” I say and tug at the his sleeve, but it’s too late.  He is already telling her I’m a dancer from England.

Suddenly, a space opens in front of her and I knee-waddle into my position.  The hug-handler who just told her I’m Billy Elliot (and probably that I’ve “really let myself go”) is now reaching across her lap for something so I have to sit there for a moment before I can see her.  The ninety-year-old woman wheezes and grabs my shoulder for balance.

The moment arrives.  We’re face to face.

I take a breath and say: “Amma, I was wondering-”

Without warning my head is firmly (yet gently) planted in her bosom. I place my right arm on the floor in front of her to keep my (and the old woman’s) balance and my left arm goes akimbo.  Another handler guides the akimbo arm to rest on her right side and she places her arm over mine. I try to give her a little squeeze he pulls my arm away from her so my hand is sort of stuck in mid air blindly searching for a resting place.

Amma holds my head and says in my ear… “Momomomomomomomo”. Then another handler shoves something in my hand and I am released. I back knee-wobble away from the action and stand up.  I can hear the boy singing again.

“Momomomomomomomomomo?” I think.  But I don’t understand Malayalam!  Or was she speaking in tongues? I hear that sometimes she speaks in tongues!  (I later decide that momomomomomomomomo comes from an ancient Indian dialect and means “you are a super enlightened, crazy-talented child of God, Billy… and you’re looking very trim.”)

I go back to the place where the line starts and am motioned to sit down cross-legged on the crowded carpet beside her. I am surrounded by meditating devotees. I look in my hand – a chocolate kiss, small paper bag containing white powder and an “Amma candy”. Should I eat them?  Should I save them? Should I share them with the people meditating? The chocolate melts everywhere while my leg falls asleep.

Later, Rag applies the powder (kumkuma) to my forehead with his finger.  The dot (tilaka) represents the third eye.

My third eye suddenly recalls countless Christmases where we would spend an afternoon bundled up, waiting in an endless line to meet Santa. Without fail, the moment I was plopped on Santa’s lap and he asked me what was on my wish list, all I could do was sit there with my mouth gaping.  Some people never learn.

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ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: AMMA AND THE THORN TREE

“My family has been Amma devotees for over 35 years. We live at the Ashram where my mother works as a nurse and I attend Amritapuri University where I study for a degree in business management.

“I was born in Saudi Arabia and lived there until the fourth grade. In my town there was a huge hill called Jabal Sawda. When it rains heavily there, huge water falls and landslides can occur at any moment. People actually come from miles around to see them.

“Fifteen days before we were scheduled to move to India, a huge storm occurred and the water was running very fast off the mountain. I went to look at the waterfall and while I was standing there, the earth beneath me gave way and I was sucked into the current.

“Everyone assumed I was dead. The water was flowing at about 50 km/hour was flowing fast toward the Red Sea. I closed my eyes and asked that Amma would save my life. I was pulled along for about a half a km, but then Amma placed a thorn tree in my way so I got stuck on the river’s bank.

“It was a miracle and since then I have never feared water. Even my fear of dying is gone.”

Landslides can both catastrophic and for humans and good for the environment at the same time. They occur when rock, earth, or debris flows on slopes due to gravity. They can happen on virutally any terrain given the right conditions of soil, moisture, and the angle of slope. Important to the natural process of geology, landslides serve to rearrange soil and sediments in a process that can be in sudden collapses or in slow gradual slides. The factors affecting landslides can be geological or man-made, and can occur in developed or undeveloped areas, or in areas where the terrain has been altered for roads, houses, utilities, buildings and mining activities

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COLLABROATIVE VOICES

Our collaborator and Indian dance specialist Sen Jansen told us of how, when he was little, his auntie would tell him stories of Thor Anna.

“Back when I was a girl,” she said, “the monsoon rains were so strong that the flooding could take six elephants away”.

Sometimes, Sen’s family would need to move everyone and everything to the attic and let the waters flow through the bottom of the house.  Even when Sen was a little boy they streets would flood and everyone would go play in them.

“The monsoon season impacts the region for the rest of the year. Last year was the hottest on record and their was no rain. None,” he told me.  Now there’s no predicting what will happen.

Sen’s also remembers taking a class trip to Thekkady.  

“That was my best water experience.  The milky-white waterfalls lead into a beautiful pool surrounded by rocks where everyone could sit and swim.  And you could walk right into the waterfall.  I was the happiest I’ve ever been there.”

When asked if anything has stood out to him during the project, Sen replied: “For me, water is primarily coming from the shower and the tap.  So these water memories I’m telling you are important to me.  It’s easy to get frustrated by the amount of garbage and the state of the water and choose to ignore the problems, but someday I want my country to be like Heaven so I know that I have to do my part.”

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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?  HOPE ABOUNDS AT SIDDARTHA CENTRAL SCHOOL

Visiting Siddhartha Central School was another happy reassurance that there are amazing organizations doing everything they can to insure the future of people and the planet. Their mission is “to promote physical wellness  and unity among young people through sports and games, create and eco-friendly society by implementing a bio-manure agriculture system, keep students “close to the nature” and lead healthy life without modern medicines and organize art and cultural activities that preserve the national heritage.”  To learn more about Siddhartha Central School, visit http://www.siddharthainstitutions.org.

The campus is so peaceful and everyone was so welcoming and genuine. They also have an artists retreat, two stages and a dance pavilion and will begin providing artist housing in the next two years. All artists should look into this as an ideal place to do a cultural exchange.

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FOOD, ENTAE SNEHAM (MY LOVE)

This week, as we toured from Amritapuri University and Ashram to Kollum and Siddhartha Central School back to Kochi and Sacred Heart College, we had a variety of food experiences. (There also seemed to be a little bug going around and eating wasn’t always very easy – which is sad for a food-lover like me.) That said, we had a real treat while staying at our colleague Rag’s house – country home cooking. Rag’s family owns a farm and so the food was amazingly fresh, flavorful and abundant. It was so gracious of Rag’s parents to open up their entire home to us and treat us so royally. In addition, the teachers at Siddhartha Central School made us a traditional Kerala sadyha before our performance which was wonderfully spicy and delicious.

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Our colleague Sen’s teacher wrote a beautiful poem which Rag set to a melody called

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MORE ABOUT WATER CYPHERS

Water Cyphers: Art, Performance, Science, a pilot for an international arts training, outreach, and mini-festival program, focuses on sharing water stories through theater and dance. The project will be directed by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Folded Paper Dance and Theatre (Seattle/Hong Kong) along with project partners Sen Jansen TF (Sacred Heart College of Thevara/Sensations Event Management/Kochi,) Rag Saseendrababu (Sruthi School of Dance and Music, Kollam) and Jebin JB (School of Drama, Thrissur).

Water in Kerala focuses on generating new methods for exploring the intersections of performance and science through participatory cultural heritage experiences, such as storytelling, dance, theatre, musical theatre, and mixed performance modes. This work will increase our understanding of water stories as crucial markers of a community’s cultural traditions, history, sense of place, and relationship to the environment.

United States artists include Beth Graczyk (Seattle/NY), Morgen Chang (Minneapolis, MN) and Aaron Gabriel (Minneapolis, MN).INDIA

INDIA, Week Two (August 3-9, 2015): Amrita University

750 million people around the world lack clean drinking water – roughly one in every nine people. The water crisis is our number one global risk based on impact to society according to the World Economic Forum (www.water.org/water-crisis). In India, over half of the rivers are polluted, an estimated 75% of the surface water is polluted and water pollution accounts for over 500 deaths every day.  

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Water Cyphers: Art, Performance, Science and is a pilot for an international arts training, outreach and mini-festival program focused on sharing water stories through theater, music and dance. Along with community members and artists from Kochi and Kollam, our international team gathers stories, creates dances and writes music that illuminates these critical concerns.  Public performances at Amrita University on August 12 at 4:30pm, August 14 in Kollam and in Kochi on Aug 24 and 25.  

#water

#india

#kollam

#ashram

#theater

#dance

#music

#science

#internationalcollaboration

#amma

#stgoerge

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WATER WORKSHOPS, Week Two

This week we took the movement and music pieces we created as individuals, in pairs and as a group and began to arrange them so they – in essence – “act like a river.”  We hope the different components ebb and flow in a distinct and interesting way – avoiding too much movement, too little movement or stagnation.

We work from 10am-5pm and from 7:30pm-10pm and all of us sweat profusely – especially me.  We have to move quickly and each day is full of rehearsal, filming, costume fittings, more rehearsal. Kanta, our director, suggested take a kalari (pron. like “calorie”) class for some movement inspiration.

Kalaripayattu is martial art form created between the 2nd Century BC and 2nd Century AD.  It is by far the most difficult physical experiment my body has experienced.  In fact, if you look at the floor in the picture to the left, you can see the pools of sweat/dignity that I left behind.  It’s debated which Hindu deity created kalari – Shiva, Agastya or Parashurama – but no matter, I’m sure all three had a good laugh at my ridiculous attempt.

On Thursday, we moved to Amritapuri Campus and Ashram – the site that will host our first performance scheduled for Wednesday, August 12 at 4:30pm.  It will include the piece we’ve been working on called River to River and a student piece being created as I write this.

The chancellor of the University and founder of the Ashram is a very famous Hindu leader in India called Mata Amritanandamayi Devi – better known as Amma (the “hugging saint”.) Her form of darshan (blessing) is to hug everyone who asks. It is estimated that she has hugged nearly 50 million people worldwide and sometimes hugs people in succession for more than twenty hours.

[NOTE: Tune in next week to hear about our experience meeting/hugging Amma.]

We are not allowed to take pictures inside the ashram, but you can read more and see images on their website here. A large percentage the people at the ashram are from other countries so it is a very international center. There are classes in yoga, kalari, meditation, indian singing and other practices of Advaita Vedanta. If the schedule allows, I’m hoping to take an indian singing class before I leave.

In River to River, there are many musical moments beginning to evolve, including a really beautiful shoka ganam (sad song) that Sen’s Malayalam language teacher wrote. If you click here, you can hear Rag practicing (with me attempting to sing Indian scales in the background – eek!) Also, I wrote a story song called Who’d You Rather Be? I’ve included those lyrics below.

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DIFFERENT VOICES

Another member of our team, Morgen Chang grew up in Hawai’i and now lives in Minneapolis. When she was interviewing people on the Kochi Beach, she was reminded of of the difference in perspective between those who travel frequently and those who live their entire lives in one locale – or, in this case, by one body of water.

“Hawai’i is small and we use the mountains and ocean – mauka and makai – to give directions. For instance: ‘That’s on the makai side of the street.’ When I moved to MN, I thought: there are no mountains and there are little “makais” all over the place. How will I know where I’m going? It never occurred to me to use the sun. Or even a map!”

I asked Morgan about a water memory from her child and if anything has changed.

“Growing up, there was a stream behind my grandmother’s house that my sisters and I would play in.  I remember it full of ducks and fish and crayfish.  A lot natural waterways in Hawai’i have been paved to prevent erosion and flooding.  But when the sun hits the pavement, it heats up and kills the fish which sends the wildlife other places as well.

“That stream means a lot to our family.  When my dad died, we scattered a few of his ashes there.”

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COLLECTING PERSPECTIVES: GARLANDS AND GARBAGE

Meet Kripa.  She is studying Business Management at Amritapuri University and is one of the performers who participating in our workshops.

Kripa grew up in Kolkata.  “When I was in elementary school, I would somedays leave class and go to a nearby pond to feed the fish. The pond was near a temple and people began to throw different worship items (garlands, incense, candles, boxes) in the pond when they were finished with them. Not long after, the fish began to die. I organized some friends to help clean up the pond, but there was too much. The garlands and garbage suffocated the pond.”

There is another very famous temple on the Hooghly River called Dakshneswar. When she was little, people would bathe in the holy waters of the river.  Kripa wanted to put her feet in the water, but it looked so dark and murky, she was hesitant.  Then, she saw a body float by.

“When we read about Ganges in our scriptures, we picture a beautiful river flowing with pure water.  But what it actually looks like frightens me in my heart. Sometimes, it’s difficult to talk about God/spirituality and nature, but I wish people would realize when their traditions are harming what God created.”

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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?

I’m hoping to interview one of the professors or staff at Amritapuri in charge of their waste management program, but time may not allow.  V. Krishna, Director of International Guests, told us how Amrita University, Kerala has spent a lot of time engaging the community around the University and Ashram to be creative with pollution solutions, but it isn’t easy.  There is still a lot of pollution. Amritapuri recently won a prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation proof of concept grant.

Brian Arbogast, director of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wrote: “By applying creative thinking and new approaches to sanitation challenges, we can improve people’s lives. And we have no doubt that these new partnerships with India and South Africa will help us achieve this.  We believe that with governmental leadership, new business models and innovation, we can dramatically increase the progress made in tackling this global sanitation crisis.”

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FOOD, ENTAE SNEHAM (MY LOVE)

All of us were pretty sad to leave Le Linda’s (or as we call her Linda Chichi – Sister Linda) as her food kept getting better and better each day.  The variety of flavors, textures and colors was a real insight into Kerala cuisine.  Plus, Linda would often sit with us and sing songs or tell stories.

When we reached Amrita, the Guest Director Krishna was very excited to take us to the Western Canteen.   We respectfully suggested (perhaps too many times) that we’re very happy to eat at the Indian canteen.  I’m not sure he realized how much all of us love Indian cuisine.  In the end, we were able to enjoy both – Western espresso and omelets and Indian lunches and dinners graciously provided by the University.  Sometimes, we treat ourselves to the Indian restaurant half-way between the campus and the ashram called – get this – Lakeview Restaurant (on the river).  It sounds like a lodge you’d find in Northern Minnesota.

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ST. GEORGE’S CATHEDRAL: A DRAGON GUARDING THE WATER

Before leaving Kochi, we visited St. George’s Cathedral.  St. George’s is India’s oldest Syrian Catholic church, built in 594 AD. It is a very popular religious destinations for Christians and non-Christians and it is tradition to offer chicken or eggs as a gift.

St. George is a myth that is speculated to have roots as far back as Late Antiquity and the story of Horus and Setekh, but primarily tells the story of a small town named Silene where a dragon (or it has been suggested, an alligator) has made its home around the spring which provided drinking water for the town.  Every day, the people of the town would appease the dragon by offering it a sheep or goat.  If there were no sheep or goat available, the townspeople would offer a young girl.  One day, when no sheep, goats or young girls were available to sacrifice, the princess was offered up.  George, traveling through on his crusade, happens to arrive just in time to slay the dragon and spares the princess. The people of the town see this as a sign and convert to Christianity.

The new part of church (pictured) was finished this past April and has a combination of European and Keralite architecture. It one of the largest in India with a built up area of over 88000 square feet with an alter composed of over 36 kilos of gold.

The church courtyard holds a well and devotees believe the water in the well has curative powers.

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WHO’D YOU RATHER BE?

Well, I put down a vessel in the mighty Mississip

For to find my fortune on a mighty river trip

I started at the headwaters, clarion and cold

And I tried to stake a claim in her but every one was sold

Every one was sold, o, every one was sold

I tried to stake a claim in her, but every one was sold

So I took my little boat a week or two downstream

And I settled in a city they were callin’ Saint Louie

Every man was thirsty there for somethin’ good to drink

So I built myself a factory right on the river’s bank

I took that river water that was clearer than the sky

And I put it in a bottle that was sure to catch your eye

I sold it for a little more’n water that was free

And I printed on the label: “I have healin’ properties!”

Healin’ properties, o, healin’ properties

I printed on the label: “I have healin’ properties!”

We had to get that water out at such a fevered pitch

I thought another factory might surely do the trick

I built myself a second and a third and fourth and fifth

And the people kept a-lappin’ up that mighty Mississip!

Several years there after on a trip to New Orleans

I met myself a creature that provoked in me a scream

The thing looked like a person that had been turned inside-out

With something like petroleum a-drippin’ from its mouth

And it said:

“I was once a fisherman who fed his family

But now this mess of guts and bones is all that’s left of me

If there’s one thing you remember as you live out all your days

It’s that I was your best costumer

Drinkin’ up that water that your factory had made

“Drinkin’ up that water, friend

Drinkin’ every drop

But not what’s in them bottles, friend

What’s spewin’ from your shops!”

Well…

I retired my vessel from its mighty river trip

And I cashed in my fortune from the mighty Mississip

Few have faired as well as me as you can plainly see

But in my little story here, who’d you rather be?

Who’d you rather be, o, who’d you rather be?

In my little story, friend, who would you rather be?

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MORE ABOUT WATER CYPHERS

Water Cyphers: Art, Performance, Science, a pilot for an international arts training, outreach, and mini-festival program, focuses on sharing water stories through theater and dance. The project will be directed by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Folded Paper Dance and Theatre (Seattle/Hong Kong) along with project partners Sen Jansen TF (Sacred Heart College of Thevara/Sensations Event Management/Kochi,) Rag Saseendrababu (Sruthi School of Dance and Music, Kollam) and Jebin JB (School of Drama, Thrissur).

Water in Kerala focuses on generating new methods for exploring the intersections of performance and science through participatory cultural heritage experiences, such as storytelling, dance, theatre, musical theatre, and mixed performance modes. This work will increase our understanding of water stories as crucial markers of a community’s cultural traditions, history, sense of place, and relationship to the environment.

United States artists include Beth Graczyk (Seattle/NY), Morgen Chang (Minneapolis, MN) and Aaron Gabriel (Minneapolis, MN).

INDIA, Week One (July 26-Aug 2, 2015)

750 million people around the world lack clean drinking water – roughly one in every nine people. The water crisis is our number one global risk based on impact to society according to the World Economic Forum (www.water.org/water-crisis). In India, over half of the rivers are polluted, an estimated 75% of the surface water is polluted and water pollution accounts for over 500 deaths every day.

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Water in Kerala: Art, Performance, Science and is a pilot for an international arts training, outreach and mini-festival program focused on sharing water stories through theater, music and dance. Along with community members and artists from Kochi and Kollam, our international team gathers stories, creates dances and writes music that illuminates these critical concerns.  Public performances in Kollam on Aug 14 and 15 and in Kochi on Aug 24 and 25.  

#watercrisis

#kerala

#india

#theater

#dance

#music

#science

#internationalcollaboration

#bethechange

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WATER WORKSHOPS

Our workshops this week explored movement techniques like Laban movement analysis, modern and contemporary dance and Bharathanatyam –traditional Tamil Nadu dance-and the way these different techniques (and others) could be combined to tell water stories. Each collaborator brings different backgrounds, lenses and life experiences regarding their own personal water stories. As a first step, we explore our own stories through movement, dance and song. Kanta Kochher-Lindgren, our director, uses a variety of techniques to help us find a common vocabulary to express ourselves.

This week I’ve thought a lot about growing up in Northern Minnesota surrounded by thousands of fresh water lakes, streams and the powerful Mississippi River that bordered my grandparent’s farm.  I remember fishing for sunfish on Connor’s, midnight swimming under a crystalline sky and crisscrossing frozen lakes on ice-skates.  I ruminate on these things as I create my movement phrases, improvise a melody or write lyrics.

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DIFFERENT VOICES

Our collaborator, Rag Saseendrababu grew up in Kollam, India on the Arabian Sea and remembers fertile rice fields, regular monsoon seasons (it’s only rained once since we arrived) and the pool in Sree Bala Subramanya Swamy Temple that drew water from the Thenmala Dam and returned it to the sea.

The Thenmala Dam is the second largest irrigation project in Kerala, India. It is the longest reservoir in the state and water is primarily used for power generation, but has also become an ecotourism destination, bordered on both sides by the Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary.

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Beth Graczyk, a contemporary dancer and choreographer from Arlington, WA (an hour north of Seattle) grew up in the Cascade Mountains and remembers how the well water smelt of sulfur. She recalls her dad building a trout pond so he could fish at his leisure.  “He wanted to build his own ecosystem,” she told us while she laughed.

As we explore, we work to find avenues where each collaborator’s voice is heard, encouraged and appropriately challenged so that their story is understandable and captivating.  If the story is clear, it’s easier to see how it fits into the whole.

By working this way, we hope to create an effective and culturally competent model that will allow community members (both performers and non performers) to tell their own water stories.  We want to insure our approach is thoughtful, respectful for those involved as well as exciting for those who come to listen.

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COLLECTING PERSPECTIVES

Part of our process included visiting Kochi beach, taking pictures and sound samples and interviewing people. Almost everyone was more than willing to share their stories and had a lot to say. Most interviewees blame the government and poor infrastructure for the pollution problems.

But India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi challenges that view.

“Until we focus on our lifestyle and get the world to focus on it, we will not succeed despite all other measures being taken,” Modi told state environment ministers in April.

“[The Indian] people should set an example.”

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WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?

While we’re interviewing people, two men haul a swollen plastic bag to the ocean’s edge.  They empty the contents – various glass and plastic bottles – into the surf.  Then, one of the men flings the empty bag as far as he can into the water.  It returns to him on the next available wave.  He throws it again, turns quickly and joins his friend walking to the ice cream stand.

We approach them and ask them about the water.

‘The beach is full of garbage,” they say. “It must be cleaned up.”

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“NATURE HAS NO CHOICE”

Another man sits alone under his umbrella observing the waves.  His bench is a large portion of a plastic children’s playhouse that has washed ashore.

We ask him about the water.

“Nature and humankind are connected.   They are part of a balance.  Humankind is destroying nature, so nature has no choice but to destroy humankind.”

Beth reminds us of The Tragedy of the Commons – a phrase used to describe a situation where individuals acting independently and rationally according to each’s self-interest behave contrary to the best interests of the whole group by depleting some common resource.

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FOOD, ENTAE SNEHAM (MY LOVE)

While we may not be able to drink the water, we certainly haven’t shied away from the food.  We are staying at Le Linda Homestay in Fort Kochin which also houses our rehearsal space.  Our host mom, Linda, is a very skilled chef (who also gives Ayurvedic massage with her husband and sister.) The food is extraordinary and each day is an array of perfectly balanced flavors.  Linda adds: “All natural food prepared the traditional Kerala way.”

In Kerala, it is customary to eat with your hands and our friend Nimmy is happy to teach the technique. Rice is particularly hard to eat by hand, but most meals are served with pappadam (a fried bread) that you add to the rice as a binding agent.

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KEEPIN’ IT REAL

One day after dinner, Sen and Rag were sat at the table for quite sometime before washing their hands. When asked why they were waiting, Sen informed us that there is a local superstition that says the faster you wash your hands off after a meal, the sooner you will get married.

Both young men waited for the food to dry completely.

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MORE ABOUT WATER IN KERALA

Water in Kerala: Art, Performance, Science, a pilot for an international arts training, outreach, and mini-festival program, focuses on sharing water stories through theater and dance. The project will be directed by Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren, Folded Paper Dance and Theatre (Seattle/Hong Kong) along with project partners Sen Jansen TF (Sacred Heart College of Thevara/Sensations Event Management/Kochi,) Rag Saseendrababu (Sruthi School of Dance and Music, Kollam) and Jebin JB (School of Drama, Thrissur).

Water in Kerala focuses on generating new methods for exploring the intersections of performance and science through participatory cultural heritage experiences, such as storytelling, dance, theatre, musical theatre, and mixed performance modes. This work will increase our understanding of water stories as crucial markers of a community’s cultural traditions, history, sense of place, and relationship to the environment.

United States artists include Beth Graczyk (Seattle/NY), Morgen Chang (Minneapolis, MN) and Aaron Gabriel (Minneapolis, MN).