Bellying to a feline life

As part of their annual showcase — Footlights, the Tarantismo Creative Dance Company is all set to enact My Nine Lives. It will give the audience a glimpse into the nine lives of a cat and how the feline acts as catalyst in different situations in those nine lives. The students of Tarantismo will be joined by professionals as well as two well-known belly dancers from Russia for the show.

In the ninth edition, Footlights is a platform for all belly dancing students to perform what they have been taught. Anusha Hegde who will be performing and choreographing the show says, “To further our knowledge about the style, we have travelled to different cities and countries. This became an expensive endeavour. Thus, we brought down various artists so that belly dancing students can learn different influences.” As a group, they do not like to just play music and dance to it. They believe dancing is a way of expressing a story or emotion, and their show always follows a theme. She adds, “Having a theme makes it interesting for all. Since it’s the ninth edition, we thought that it would be apt to show the nine lives of a cat. We explore how the cat has had an effect on each of its nine lives.” The cat is a catalyst used to explore influences in life. Through this, the cat tries to say that it has had a role in each of its lives, and as humans, we don’t necessarily give it the importance it deserves. Anusha shares, “There will be over 12-13 different groups performing. Atleast 70 percent of them will be belly dancing. Along with that, there will be a lot of African style belly dancing, Bollywood etc.” They will be joined by Irina Shevchenko (Daliya) and Yana Kremneva (Kremushka) who will bring their own style of tribal fusion, Oriental influences, and much more. The belly dance scene has evolved over the years, and she adds, “Many are not aware that with Bollywood and Shakira, this form started gaining acceptance. Over the years, people have become more open to it. As a culture, we were not very comfortable with the style. There is a very thin line on how one can present this. It is very feminine, graceful and sensuous in a positive sense.”

Gauri Kokatay will be performing and working behind-the-scenes with students and team members. She adds, “I will be performing with a group of 10 dancers, doing two routines. In one, the cat’s life occurs in an African tribe which thinks it is auspicious to kill a black cat. We delve into how she changes the mindset of the tribe.” On what she takes back from the show she shares, “We don’t really understand the concept of after-life. People believe that whatever they are doing right now, should be done to the fullest. Actions can only bring about a change or inspire in the now, not in the future.” Deepti Shetty, director of Tarantismo will also be performing, and she elaborates, “We will be enacting a scenario in the cat’s life. I will be doing a retro piece — something like Girls just wanna have fun. It shows how nine girls are infatuated with a single guy. The cat is his pet, and they are all gaga over it.” A characteristic of a cat which she relates is, “Cats mind their own business, do their own thing, don’t really want much from us. I feel that they live a free and independent life,” she concludes.

— The performance will take place on November 25 at the Radisson Blu Atria.