LITTLE STINT | Angdaai Project

Kaun Angdaai Le Raha hai ‘Adam’
Do Jahan Ladkhadaye Jaate Hain

The words of Abdul Hamid Adam reflect the sensual power of this seemingly unconscious action. Through movement, somatics and a soundscape that both reacts to and is influenced by the performers Vaishnavi and Aabshaar, this choreographic exploration takes us on a trip to feel the poetic resonance of the angdaai–far beyond the ‘lazy stretch’ that it translates into in English. For the threesome presenting this work in progress, it’s an invocation—an opening, a shift, a reset button for the body and soul.

The Angdaai Project came out of the pandemic—when humanity as a whole went through a series of involuntary movements—a period during which all living beings danced an involuntary dance of adjustments and contractions.The idea–to reclaim the body’s freedom against a seemingly relentless stream of stimulus, restrictions, labels, and commands. It stems from the understanding that even a tiny physical adjustment is testimony to the body’s intelligence and inherent knowledge, making it somehow wiser than the loud and dominating mind that commands it. This project looks at belonging to the body and how the body belongs, manifests, connects and unites the inside with the outside. This is the first public iteration of a work in progress that asks the audience to participate in its evolution.