Project Overview
Under body, below word - a space began as a disassembly of one Bollywood item number: Beedi Jalaile from Omkara. But as we created the piece during a period of military tension & media attention on India, Pakistan, & Kashmir, terms like “non-escalatory” & “in national interest” began to seep in. Suddenly, Beedi & this rhetoric began to intermingle each reshaping the other. The performance moves from spectacle to scrutiny: dancers are interrogated for a smile, a shoulder drop, a hip movement. Through army drills, courtrooms, & projected scan lines, their gestures are reconditioned, disciplined, surveilled. Blending dance, projection, and text, this interdisciplinary work asks: what power structures are we consuming when we consume performance? How might the smallest gestures those dismissed as ‘just dance' hold entire ideologies beneath them?"
Expected Impact
This project challenges dominant cultural narratives around dance, gender & surveillance in India. In a country where movement is either sacred (classical)or sexualized(Bollywood), this work proposes a 3rd space — where bodies resist categorisation, & gestures are reclaimed from spectacle. The piece is interdisciplinary, bringing together performers from hip-hop, somatics, theatre & contemporary dance. By blending movement, projection and spoken word, it disrupts expectations of both “high”&“popular” art. Its use of an item song as material is a conscious provocation—inviting audiences to reexamine their own gaze, & to question how desire & control are constructed. We hope this project contributes to a growing body of Indian performance that pushes beyond binaries. It offers a template for reinterpreting mainstream culture with criticality, care and boldness, inspiring artists to build forms that are as hybrid as the realities they reflect.
Applicant Background
Gia Singh Arora & Somya Kautia are an interdisciplinary performance duo based in Mumbai. Their collaborative practice brings together movement, somatic research, text, & visual dramaturgy. Over the last 4 years, Gia & Somya have co-led the workshop series What Is Performance, a long-form pedagogical & artistic inquiry into how movement interacts with poetry, sound, & everyday objects. They have taught at Anant University & KRVIA university. In 2023, they performed a commissioned piece for Mumbai Gallery Weekend at Art & Charlie. Their collaboration is driven by a shared curiosity about the body — as both a site of expression & resistance Gia’s background lies in Odissi, somatic movement practice, & filmmaking. Her work often investigates intimacy, gender, & the politics of watching and being watched. Somya brings over a decade of experience in contemporary, jazz, capoeira, & CI. Both share a deep form, improvisation, & spatial composition.