Productions
Temple of Desire
PRESENTED BY MELBOURNE FRINGE
at Malthouse Theatre
(2024 - Premier)
A celebration of spirituality and sensuality, through the beauty of classical Indian dance.
Enter the Temple of Desire, an imaginary sanctum where mystery and intrigue allure us to indulge in the spiritual and the sensual all at once!
In this visually stunning dance-theatre work, 16 dancers draw from their training in the classical Indian dance form of Bharatanātyam to rediscover a pre-colonial world where the divine and the sensual unite with splendour and power. A celebratory world where pleasure and joy (കാമ / kāma) are not maligned but are pathways to liberation (മോക്ഷ / mōksha).
Anchored in a moving acknowledgement of culture, tradition, colonial loss, and gendered oppression, Temple of Desire is an uplifting journey that embraces alternative histories and liberatory futures. Teeming with tradition, yet subversive and unbound, this captivating journey leads us to a place of profound beauty, euphoria, joy and human understanding.
Drishti
THE ARTS CENTRE & MELBOURNE FRINGE
as part of TakeOver! festival
(2020 - Premier)
Winner - Best Dance & Physical Theatre
Winner - Innovation in Culturally Diverse Practise (Melbourne Fringe Awards)
Moving, visceral and experimental - classical Indian dancers Govind Pillai and Raina Peterson explore the truth that for many in this grand metropolitan matrix of streets, suburbs and prejudices, the experience of social isolation is nothing new nor uncomfortable.
We've been here before. Maybe you have too?
[Click for more info…]
Kāla
DUE WEST ARTS FESTIVAL, MELBOURNE (2019 - Premier)
Kāla is a classical Indian dance performance about death and regeneration. In this premier work, time is circular, death is epic, and themes of transformation, destiny and liberation arise from fire and ash.
Raina Peterson and Govind Pillai perform Mohiniyattam and Bharatanatyam to a live orchestra as audiences join a transformative journey through life and death.
[Read reviews…]
Third Nature
MIDSUMMA FESTIVAL, ARTS HOUSE MELBOURNE (2019 - Premier)
Third Nature takes the look, feel and smell of jasmine traditionally used in South Asian cultures to decorate women’s hair and marriage beds as inspiration for a dynamic contemporary work exploring the wildness of gender and the weirdness of human sexuality.
The abundance of jasmine in this work reflects the liberty and wealth of pre-colonial South Asia, invoking an imagined future where this liberty and wealth is intact. In this world, classical Indian dancers Raina Peterson and Govind Pillai imagine what it might be like to inhabit bodies which have never been subjected to colonialism, binaries or shame.
Peterson and Pillai make a heartfelt call for freedom and connection in this sensuous, riotous and celebratory work of lavish beauty and playful disarray. Get lost in a fantastical world where there are no binaries and no shame.
[Read reviews…]
Bent Bollywood
MIDSUMMA FESTIVAL, MELBOURNE (2018 - Premier)
ADELAIDE FRINGE FESTIVAL (2019)
Shortlisted for the Australian Dance Awards (one of three)
Bent Bollywood is a queer dance show that combines the technical rigour of classical Indian dance, the camp theatrics of Bollywood and everything that is weird and wonderful about queer performance art.
Witness the treacherous imagination of the diaspora, the postcolonial rage of the subaltern, and the exuberant lust of the queers who would have written a much better Kama Sutra if only they’d been asked.
The magnificent classical Indian dancer and queer performance artist Raina Peterson will be joined by her pet twink, an otherwise irrelevant pretty boy who’s primary function in life is as an object d’art.
[Read reviews…]
In Plain Sanskrit
MELBOURNE (2015 - Premier)
AUCKLAND (2016)
Taking a contemporary approach to classical Indian dance, Raina Peterson and Govind Pillai poke at the edges of tradition and kick up the ashes of history as they ask 'what really is tradition?'. Trained in the 3000-year-old classical Indian dance traditions of Mohiniyattam and Bharatanatyam - Raina and Govind explore a new dance aesthetic that's best described, in plain Sanskrit.
[Read reviews…]
Sutra
MELBOURNE (2011 - Premier)
HOBART (2012)
SYDNEY (2013)
BYRON BAY (2016)
Live dance, music and film come together in a rare and intimate stage documentary on classical Indian dance.
Performance and documentary film combine, blurring the lines for the audience between two styles of theatre experiences of our era: the cinema theatre, and the performance theatre.
[Read reviews…]
Other notable productions and collaborations
VIDYA DHANAM (2020)
Karma Dance Academy’s annual student showcase of 2020, performed by the 60 students of the Karma Dance Academy incorporating contemporary social themes such as the competition between dance and hand-held technology, domestic violence, and post natal depression.
tagore's vision:
the poetry of india (2013)
At the Victorian College of the Arts,
a collaboration with Tara Rajkumar (OAM)
A classical and contemporary expression of the literature and vision of Indian Poet - Rabindranath Tagore.
REVIEWS
SOLO : DEBUT OF DIVYA SHREEJITH KUMAR
A full-length solo graduation performance by Karma Dance Academy graduate, Divya Shreejith Kumar.
REVIEWS
MAATHAA: THE MATERNAL ENERGY (2014)
A Karma Dance Academy student production exploring the various ideas of the maternal energy across cultures: mother earth, mother tongue, mother country, god as mother.
REVIEWS:
Peril Australian-Asian Arts and Cultural Magazine:
Classical Indian Arts in a new Australian Generation
shakti: strength, power, energy, force (2010)
A multi art-form full-length production in the dance styles of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kuchipudi.
videos:
devadasi
A Karma Dance Academy performance where classical Indian dance, music and documentary film come together to tell the fascinating story of classical Indian dance over the centuries.
INDRIYAM
A journey through the various internal and external senses, performed by students of the Karma Dance Academy.
SANMAARGAM
Melborne
sanmaargam
"Sanmaargam" (in Sanskrit)- reflects the idea that dance is a journey of personal character development beyond just the movement of hands & legs. It is a journey of the mind, the soul, the heart. As students of the Karma Dance academy perform, each item will showcase a different personal value/principle which the students have learnt about in class and will contemplate as they perform.
TRIRANGA
A tri-coloured expression through dance and live music, of the symbolism behind the Indian flag. Hosted by the Laya Vidhya Centre, Melbourne.