Kalpa Vriksha

Dedicated to Beppe Chierichetti

Kalpa Vriksha, the tree of desires, is one of the types of World-Tree found in the Hindu as well as Buddhist and Tantric tradition and which takes on the attributes of an archetype, i.e. a primary model that continually renews its polysemic value.

In some of the many versions of the myth, it is defined not only as the place where individual aspirations encounter the possibility of being fulfilled, but also as a space of the heart, the place to be guarded, to be preserved from non-pure intentions as potential causes of one’s own evils.

Starting from this reflection, the dance-theatre Odissi performance explores the delicate relationship between tradition and contemporaneity, but also between the great history and a single, individual story. As a pretext for all this, there is the relationship of an Italian actress/dancer with one of the most sacred and ancient dances of India.

A journey therefore understood as an ascent from below, the roots, towards the top, the branches, but also from the outside towards the inside as that which leads to the most secret space of the temple, mandir, place of custody of the divine as well as inner space.

How to translate this into movement, sound, images? Why to propose an experience so distant at first sight to a Western audience?
What more have the maharis (ancient priestess-dancers) and the wall sculptures of the Orissa temples in which they lived for their entire lives to tell us?
Do they perhaps have something in common with the deafening and ever-increasing speed of modern India?
Open questions for an open work in which everyone is invited to take part as in a ritual whose necessity has only apparently been forgotten

Actress-dancer: Antonietta Fusco.

Direction: A. Grilli.

Produced by: Teatro Due Mondi – Faenza (RA)

The performance will use traditional Hindustani music and original compositions by maestro Maurizio Stefanìa.

Duration: 1 hour approx.