Dance / collaboration
Divija Melally performs dance-theatre collaboration with Saili Katebe
Recently crowned the performing arts newcomer at the inaugural Bristol Legends awards, Divija Melally is a dancer working primarily in contemporary and South Asian classical styles.
As part of the forthcoming DIASPORA! festival from Diverse Artists Network, she will be presenting two nights of dance-theatre-spoken word collaboration at The Wardrobe Theatre in May, titled One Foot In The Dark.
Blending movement and text to inhabit the way in which we physicalise our own stories, Melally describes how her solo work The Skeleton is White examines “how the colour of our skin can affect our relationship to each other and to the environment that surrounds us.
Divija Melally in The Skeleton is White, part of One Foot In The Dark
“Our intrinsic DNA mechanisms have wired our body and mind to respond involuntarily in particular environments”, she says, “triggering the fight, flight or freeze mode.
“The work aspires to investigate the effects of the stress response system, and the ways in which it could manifest into the entire physicality of the person. As we move in a constantly changing world, how do we make our own bodies forget and disregard race? How do we erase the inscribed whiteness of the skeleton?”
Divija Melally and Saili Katebe in the duet Six Degrees From Home
Completing the double bill will be Six Degrees From Home, Melally’s duet with writer and spoken word performer Saili Katebe.
This multidisciplinary piece borrows from the artists’ respective practices of dance and poetry to navigate themes of “migration, miscommunication, and belonging”, they explain.
Divija Melally and Saili Katebe’s interdisciplinary collaboration blends poetry and dance
“The work reflects on what is lost in translation, and what can still be found when we reach across distance, culture, and discipline.
“Inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation, this is a search for home: not as a single place, but a shared journey, toward understanding, toward one another, toward a sense of return.”
One Foot In The Dark is at The Wardrobe Theatre on May 5-6 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available at www.thewardrobetheatre.com.
DIASPORA! takes place across Bristol from May 1-10, with a full programme available at www.diverseartistsnetwork.com. Follow @diverseartistsnetwork for updates.
All photos: Divija Melally and Saili Katebe
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