Contemporary dancer, Shruti Maria Datar’s ‘C. Tactile’ is all about the power of touch

Mumbai based dancer, Shruti Maria Datar, presents her contemporary dance choreography, C. Tactile, in Bengaluru on April 11

A contemporary dance performance C. Tactile will be presented in Bengaluru. Conceptualised and choreographed by Shruti Maria Datar, a bombay-based independent artist, the performance aims to explore what it means to embody a female identity in a world where the male gaze shapes perceptions, Shruti says over the phone from Mumbai amidst her dance rehearsals.

“The dance invites audiences to witness the dancers use their bodies as canvases of resistance, vulnerability, and resilience, embracing the contradictions of touch as both an experience and an act of intervention.”

C. Tactile is a full-length contemporary duet, created with movement collaborator, Melitta Dsouza. Shruti will be joined on the stage by Nishashmita, and the duo will perform to pre-recorded music, an original composition by Adriel George.

The dance is produced by The Movement Arts Co, an initiative which functions across the three verticals through dance programs in schools, Viewpoint (a crowdfunded platform for emerging choreographers) and supporting the creation and showcase of artistic projects in Mumbai, explains Shruti, who has had her professional dance training in the contemporary genre from Danscentrumjette, Belgium.

A trained classical dancer (Bharatanatyam), Shruti, uses movement to explore themes of identity, culture and human emotion. Though she finds contemporary dance a form that gives her the freedom to explore movement and abstract concepts, she also believes Bharatanatyam has not restricted her.

“It has given me a strong foundation as Bharatanatyam involves gestures, hand and feet movements, abhinaya.”

When people think of contemporary dance, Shruti says, they strip the form off many of these classical attributes. “As I draw from my personal experiences, Bharatantayam is very much a part of that process. Hence, I include gestural and facial expression to my contemporary work as well.”