> ANGEL : N I H A R I K A S E N A P A T I

ANGEL

Created for Dancenorth. Tomorrow Makers 4. 2021.

Program Notes:

This solo has been a beautiful experience to build. Somewhat like a mirage, the character, the dances, the songs, the music and the words drifted into me as if from another place. Quite slippery and difficult to capture. I became fascinated in how I could become a channel where these things could be conjured to evoke epic drama and powerful energetic presence.
 This year has been full of so many changes in my body, mind, in love and life. Somehow this work has been a vessel for my feelings to go, a recalibration. Perhaps, like myself, you can be lulled back into reality by way of the magical.

For though you might live in fantasies of sadness,
and are filled with the beauty of a thousand worries,
remember you are a wild thing,
in a celestial drama.
Magnificent and not broken.

Concept, performance, sound design, text: Niharika Senapati
Costume design: Andrew Treloar

Dancenorth. Tomorrow Makers 4. ANGEL by Niharika Senapati. 2021 Photo credit: Amber Haines.

Monologue:

The body yearns for you
for you are not broken
or ill
and in the darkness you might find that the heaviness will lead you somewhere.
You are in the stadium of your perception.
Do you feel your web or feed your idol?
To collide with the inner sanctum of being
And don’t be fooled by the ease of the perfect illusion.

See this as a warning
or a blessing
For though you might live in fantasies of sadness
and are filled with the beauty of a thousand worries
no matter the shadow,
pierce right through the portal of desire
up high of that pedestal and
follow the buoyancy of time into the fractals that make you.
For perfection is in the eye of the beholder and you are not beholden to anything but this moment.
Love thyself and love thy magic
I dissolve inside my cave
To annihilate the self in the most spiritual of ways.

Our hearts of stone
will you melt
When the sun is fading quietly
And tomorrow is closer than yesterday
Your jewelled sternum

tyrannous image, why do you tease us?
tyrannous image why do you tease us?
in fields of flowers of composing fates.

And up there in your palace, how lightly do you weep?

for you are a wild thing
in a celestial drama
Magnificent and not broken

and all you can do is return back to your body
return back to your body
return back to your body
return back to your body.