[2009052] Madhu – Sweet Diversity

Madhu – Sweet Diversity [FringeTIX]

Niki Shepherd @ Holden Street Theatres (The Studio)

5:30pm, Sun 8 Mar 2009

After some appalling dance in 2007, I’d been scared off Indian-influenced dance a bit… but then I saw Madhu in the Guide: short run, at Holden Street, and not a Shakti to be seen. “Ancient Indian dance and new choreography come together in this unique and exciting solo performance,” it promised. You beauty – scheduled, ticket acquired.

Of course, I forgot one little thing – the music. And what music would you expect to accompany trad Indian dance?

Yep – tabla.

I fucking hate tabla. Actually, that’s not quite true; I find it quite refreshing, almost a palate cleanser, for a couple of minutes. But once it crosses the five-minute mark, it turns into one of the most annoying sounds that could afflict me; I’d honestly prefer white noise, static.

Regardless, Niki Shepherd draws upon her background in Kuchipudi dance, with the type of swift, gliding movements that I’ve come to associate with Indian dance. And, whilst that only turned out to be mildly interesting, the surprising thing (for me, anyway) was how expressive it all was – her eyes told stories, flitting from left to right, and that little head-wobble thing popping in sync with the music.

Costumes look to be traditional – but who am I to judge? – and Niki presented three pieces, introduced with little voiceover snippets. The first two are curious; as I’ve mentioned, I didn’t get sucked into the style as much as I was expecting, and the tabla was really getting on my nerves. After a short interval (why say it’s going to be five minutes when you know it’s going to be ten?), the third piece starts – and this, too, raises plenty of questions. Unfortunately, they’re not “good” questions – more along the lines of “when it this going to end?” Because, despite the costume change (from traditional to more modern), this untrained eye detected little – if any – change to the dance itself, so deep was the influence of one on the other. Of course, it was set against a more modern piece of piano-centric music, so at least it had that going for it… but, all else considered, this final act added little to the performance, except spins that looked on the edge of control.

Sigh. At the end of the day, this was pretty much a non-event to me. Which is sad, I guess, but at least I can say that I’ve experienced something new.