A sequence from Versedance, to be staged at Gyan Manch on Saturday

Sakal loker majhey amar nijer mudra doshe ami hoyechhi alada? The protagonist keeps repeating the lines in a frenzy. A flute repeats the same monotony of notes. Hopeless and desolate, he sits at a corner, crouched in a foetal position, and mumbles: ?Tobu ami eman ekaki.? Lonely figures walk in, one after the other, mouthing the same line, each caught in his own world. Listless eyes see not, neither does touch communicate. Love gives but a moment?s respite from the isolation. ?Sapno noy, shanti noy, bhalobasha noy.?

Jibonananda Das?s lines come alive in a flurry of voice, music and action on stage. This is versedance ? a melange of the two forms ? to be seen on stage on Saturday at Gyan Manch.

?Versedance transforms poetry to a dramatic performing script and then executes it by using the form of dance theatre,? explained Jhuma Basak, artistic director of Nuances, during the rehearsal.

Basak speaks of the inspiration of Pina Bausch, a dance theatre icon who revived Ausdrucktanz, or ?expressive dance?, popular in the 1920s, that looks to everyday movements to express personal experiences. ?It is a non-linear structure, with multiple narratives being performed simultaneously. The focus is on narrative moments and the quality of emotions in them.?

Thus, sections have been chosen from Jibanananda?s Bodh, Aat Bochhor Ager Ek Din and Journal 1346 and woven into a separate entity entitled ?Endless Weight?. Similarly, Amrita Pritam and Rilke?s poetry have been used to create two other sections of the production. Music (by Kaushik Dutta) plays an important part. ?I aim to create a complementary work process using physical action and musicality,? Basak points out.

?Reading poetry evokes emotion. Versedance allows us to put physical expression to the emotion,? says Dana Roy, a member of the cast.

That is what had happened in a classroom performance at Presidency College, where the English department had staged a versedance production based on TS Eliot?s Prelude, under Basak?s direction, a couple of months ago. ?This is a wonderful way to teach poetry, where one often needs some visual to catch on to,? says Kamal Ahluwalia, a teacher and member of the Versedance cast. ?But with the pressure of completing the syllabus, it is a pity not everything can be taught using performance.?

Next up after the Gyan Manch show is a Jadavpur University production of Gwendoline C. Konie?s We are Equals on November 30.