Restless Natives  is a travelling performance project that explores the intersection of art, politics, and daily breath. ![]() Click here for performances:
USA/Canadian City and Dates
The story is pieced together out of poems and prose
from various sources, outlining violence against children, especially by means of
illegal weapons and warfare. The dancer asks for a moment of silence in
honour of those who died in the tragedy of 9/11. She also seeks days, hours months and years of silence, through pages of history, for millions who were killed by imperialist regimes the world over, including the United States and its allies. She explores the ways in which we can and must
sustain ourselves in our search for more peaceful and just ways of
living on the land and with each other.
The text is embodied through dance (rooted in Bharatnatyam, but drawing
from flamenco and other movement forms), and clothed in living music
(using instruments and styles from Native and folk traditions of the
Americas).
The story is spun open by Malavika Tara Mohanan and Denali DeGraf in an
interactive performance, and is made whole by the evolution of a
community fabric that depends on everyone in the room. Thus, the second
portion is an invitation for everyone to co-create an experience that
searches for the artistic, social, physical, and spiritual truth of the
community present.
The hope, the dream, is that each one of us leaves feeling closer to
understanding what we must resist, what we must create, and the
infinity we must ultimately surrender to.
The artists: Malavika Tara Mohanan & Denali DeGraf
Malavika Tara Mohanan began
training in bharatanatyam at the age of eight at Kalanjali in Berkeley,
California. A year later, in 1990, she joined Apsaras Arts in
Singapore, and performed her arangetram (first full length solo public
concert) in 1995. In the recent years she has been exploring as many
traditions of movement as have come her way.
She began playing with theater at the age of fifteen at United World
College of SE Asia in Singapore. She continued study with a focus on
biology and theater at Stanford University, graduating with a
Bachelor's degree in Drama. She has performed/directed/choreographed
various theatre and dance projects, both solo and group, in Singapore,
California, India, Argentina, and Kenya.
Malavika's first original dance-poetry-theater experiment called
Navashwaasam (New Breaths, 2005), inspired by Argentinian poet Roberto
Juarroz's Spanish poem, Nuevas Respiraciones , was a step in her larger
experiment of one's being entirely consistent in all aspects of living,
working, playing, and believing. Her second piece, One Hundred Years of
Silent Seeds (2006), added to her journey the creative resistance of a
shanti sainya.
A review of navashwaasam that appeared in The Hindu, India, is
available at the following website:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/fr/2006/01/06/stories/2006010600530200.htm
A write-up about Malavika that appeared in Daily News and Analysis
(DNA), Mumbai, on 10 September 2006, is available at:
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=105203
Denali DeGraf began playing
music while growing up in the United States. At age nineteen he
traveled to Chile and Argentina and continued to play and study music
as well as woodwork. After returning to the States to finish his
studies in Culture and Politics at Stanford University, he apprenticed
with master Native American Flute maker Guillermo Martinez and began
crafting hand-carved wooden flutes. Upon moving back to southern
Argentina permanently at the age of twenty-one, he made this his full
profession.
He has performed in various ensembles in Patagonia, and recorded 2
CDs. In 2005 he recorded Huellas en el silencio, a CD of instrumental
music with Alberto Magnin. In the same year, he also recorded
Talampaya, music entirely composed and recorded in the canyons of
Talampaya National Park, Argentina, with Alberto Magnin and Nahuel
Rodríguez. He has also exhibited instruments in several major cities
around Argentina. In 2005 he was awarded 2nd prize for his work at the
National Master Craftsmen's Fair in Rosario, Argentina. He is a member
of the Argentine Association of Luthiers and the Union of Independent
Musicians.
He has performed music for live theater and dance events in the US and
Argentina. In 2006-7 he composed and performed the soundtrack to La
segunda conquista (The Second Conquest ), a documentary that he filmed
with Joao Dujon Pereira.
He was featured in an article (cover photo) about the instrument show
put on by the AAL in Cosquín, Córdoba, Argentina in January 2007:
http://www.luthiersargentinos.com.ar/data.php?id=0&p=1¬a=171
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