A dance to celebrate Mother Earth at the George Town Festival

Multidisciplinary production 'bhumiMATA', with a predominantly Penang-based cast, celebrates elements of classical, ritualistic, and contemporary dance forms. It is one of the George Town Festival's closing weekend highlights. Photo: David and Esther Khoo

For the unacquainted, bhumi mata means “Mother Earth”. The first thoughts that come to mind when one thinks about Mother Earth would most likely be topics about the environment and climate change.

While that is not wrong, the multidisciplinary production bhumiMATA seeks to go deeper than that.

The show is one of the highlights of the final weekend of the George Town Festival in Penang. It will be playing at the Penang Institute (10, Jalan Brown) on July 28 and 29.

In honour of the histories and narratives of bharatanatyam and the evolution of the woman experience, bhumiMATA seeks to bring their dancers and audiences into a new understanding of themes like womanhood, spirituality, and embodying traditions.

The dance production is the cohesion of the two traditional art forms in the Indian heritage – bharatanatyam and manpandam.

Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form, that originated from Tamil Nadu in South India.

Manpandam, the Indian handmade clay crockery, is known for giving Indian cuisine its earthy essence and flavour. The pots are made in a sustainable manner, and because of its make up of natural ingredients like clay rich in minerals like iron, copper and tin, mixed with sand from the river.

In bhumiMATA, audiences will get to see how the two worlds are morphed into one.

The dancers are still on a journey, according to Penang-based choreographers – Kausalyaa Sugumarin and Luvenia Kalia.

“Even for myself, I’m still grappling with the new ways of moving, away from the form and the structure that has been ingrained in me from young,” says Kausalyaa, a performer, choreographer, visual artist and drama educator, in a recent interview.

The choreographers also shared about how they are trying to move away from traditional dancer-choreographer relationships with their dancers and instead are encouraging a partnership by prompting the dancers with “how does your body want to move in this part?”.

It is a mind-boggling process that each member of the team has to step into.

“There were definitely points of frustration here and there from the dancers, because we are so used to being told what to do next,” says Luvenia, expounding on the teaching and choreographing methods.

Finding a deeper meaning

Luvenia hopes that this bhumiMATA dance performance encourages people to appreciate the traditions that this generation has inherited from our predecessors.

“We are not here to say that we are rejecting the traditions or movements, we are not trying to be rebels. Instead of blind copying what we have been taught, how can we be reflective and think about how to find our own meaning in this?” says Luvenia, a multidisciplinary artist with movement as her primary art form.

Apart from adding contemporary movement into the show, another element of the Indian Culture – traditional clay-making is also another highlight to the show. The idea sparked from Kausalyaa, who worked with George Town Heritage World Heritage Incorporated and the Indian Association on a project that documented the whole process of clay-making in Parit Buntar (in Perak).

Then, they pitched the idea to dancer-choreographer Aida Redza, the creative director of bhumiMATA, of having this as part of the show. She was very open to integrating both elements.

There were also common themes – both art forms touch on femininity (the lines of the clay jars are usually curved), and nature (the “earth” element is similar to that of clay).

The process of clay-making also requires the potter to stamp on it, which draws a parallel to bharatanatyam and the other Indian Classical dance stamping motions.

The blurred lines

It is also a bold move to put professional and community dancers together in a show.

“I can no longer differentiate who is a professional and who is not – everyone in this show is starting on the same page. The professionals have to learn a new set of movement vocabulary aside from what they are used to in their training,” says Luvenia.

“On the other hand, we did not want to force the Indian classical elements onto the bodies that are not used to moving in that manner. The community dancers are not entirely foreign to such movement ... we were the ones that encouraged them to come back into the scene and join us for bhumiMATA,” she adds.

The choreographers also believe that dance should be accessible for all, whether young or old.

“It is mostly working around athletic levels and things like knee injuries from the dancers. We would then go like ‘hey can the younger and more athletic ones do the big runs instead?’” says Luvenia.

This approach makes dance more equitable. Perhaps, the goal is not equality but equitability when it comes to appreciating and practising art forms.

How would the general George Town Festival audience – with no context of the cultures highlighted in bhumiMATA – prepare themselves for this show.

“Come with an open mind, and judgement free,” say both choreographers.

The public should also bring mosquito repellent or wear long bottoms as bhumiMATA will be held at an outdoor venue (with no air conditioning).