Artistic Director of inDANCE Hari Krishnan finally manifests a lifelong dream, to free himself from conformity, while still reveling in awe of Bharatanatyam. He choreographs a double bill of unabashedly progressive, inclusive, secular, alternative contemporary dance works, culled from living in Asia, Canada, and the US.
ROWDIES IN LOVE is a transformative political act in response to the prevailing socio-political context in parts of Asia, especially India and Singapore, recently repealing Section 377a, an antiquated colonial anti-gay law that would have condemned homosexuals to life-long prison terms.
ROWDIES IN LOVE urges a more humane global acceptance of gender and sexuality.
Hari opens with IN LOVE a brazen duet that queers heteronormative expectations. A pair of classically trained, gay Indian dancers perform a provocative, rare same-sex love story, flagrantly transgressing the colorful spectrum of male to female and vice-versa. The intense lovers, trapped in a mirror, hunger to complete each other.
Closing the double-bill is ROWDIES an urgent ensemble work for diverse male dancers, that burns through cliches of hyper-masculinity, by fluently shifting gender and contemporaneously shedding archaic cultural stereotypes, to reveal one’s true self, as is, in the here and now.
Hari Krishnan and inDance gratefully acknowledge additional funding support for the development of ROWDIES IN LOVE, from The Bank of Montreal, The Canada Council for the Arts, and The Toronto Arts Council.
Land acknowledgement: land of the Quinnipiac
Estimated artist fee: $12,000-15,000 per in-person performance plus hotel, per diem, and local ground; $5,000-7,500 per virtual performance plus live streaming costs; $25,000 for week residency including one performance plus hotel, per diem, and local ground.