Synopsis
Elixir, the second work from Sadhana Dance, sees choreographer and artistic director Subathra Subramaniam continuing to navigate the confluence of arts and science. Elixir dives deep into our cultural relationship with water in a world where its scarcity is already an ever increasing problem. Evocative and provocative, Elixir combines contemporary choreography, a powerful visual art installation, digital projection and original music with live song. It comes out of Subramaniam's own experiences in India and the High Arctic, as a science teacher in urban London and education director of the Cape Farwell climate change project, and in particular her time with Inuit communities in Nunavut Canada and Greenland. For Elixir, Subramaniam has teamed up with award-winning sculptor Josh Baum and her long-term collaborators, the composers and visual artists Kathy Hinde and Matthew Olden. Together, they have created a powerful audio-visual experience which immerses the audience in the beauty and sound of water. Drawing from the rich vocabulary of Bharata Natyam, four dancers interweave movements of rituals, play and daily practices to explore struggles and survival, scarcity and instability. Each performance of Elixir will be followed by a Cafe Scientifique where Quentin Cooper, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Material World, will chair a discussion between the artists and scientists involved in the show and the audience. Tse Hui Teh, lecturer in Water Conservation at UCL and Professor Mark Maslin, a climate scientist at UCL, who worked as consultants on Elixir will take part in several of the discussions. This event takes place at the Robin Howard Dance Theatre