Questioning Media Through Dance: Mirra

Mirra is a dancer from Bangalore, started her career at the Attakalari Centre for Movement arts.Mirra has been learning and teaching movement art since the past twelve years. Trained in contemporary dance techniques like Kalarippayattu, Bharatnatyam and Yoga, Mirra performed at the Ignite festival of contemporary dance on a piece called ‘According to official sources’, a satire that looks at the way in which marketing and publicity mechanisms control the mind and the behavior of an individual. The piece explores ideas such as power and mass hypnosis through frameworks of representation, sensationalism and objectification and was created as a part of the Gati Summer Dance Residency 2014. During a brief conversation with Mirra, One World News explored about her and the piece in detail:

What is your passion?

Working with children is my passion and I believe that the art has to reach to the community as there is a huge gap between both of them. Even in terms of dance, the moment we talk about is contemporary and there is this clichéd thought in the minds of people about it, but it is a very vast world and the responsibility lies on artists like us to make people understand what exactly it is through our performance. Also, I sternly believe that working with artists should start at the age of four because at that age they are very flexible and have no preconceived notions about anything.

How did you get this idea?

It is an observation from the day to day life and through this observation, I realized that sometimes the news is ironical and absurd and even hilarious but still people get carried away by blindly following it. The best example would be the body image that’s been promoted in news and how people are going hungry to get to that image. I am just raising questions and placing those questions for the audience.

Was it hard?

I wouldn’t say hard but it was challenging. The challenge was to physicalize the piece, how to show manipulation or control through a movement and so on.

Mirra Arun,According to Official Sources

What are the similarities in traditional dances and contemporary?

The similarities that I find in India’s traditional dances are that every form is based on yoga somehow and has an earthy kind of feeling. Apart from that, if I have to compare them with contemporary then it would be difficult to say because contemporary is a personal language and can be anything. However, these dance forms did help me to train myself in terms of discipline.

How do you work with children?

When I train children, there is no spoon feeding and the class is a free environment where I instigate questions to which they answer through body movement. For example: If I give them a concept of an elephant and ask them questions like how it looks, what sound does it make and so on, the kids would respond to it through their body movement and it is quite possible that they do it without knowing how the elephant actually looks like.
They are the most creative people in world. They are like sponges that absorb everything that is offered to them and express much more than expected.

Performance By Mirra Arun

What difference do you find in overseas and India, in regards to contemporary dance?

Overseas, the contemporary dance has matured and in India it is in a nascent position which is quite exciting since people are finding their own meaning of it. Also, the environment also matters as it makes a difference in the exploration and experimentation. I really want to see how we go about it in the future but the present scenario is not that influenced, which has to be changed.

Who is Mirra?

For me, I am a part of everything and everything is a part of me. I just love to dance. It is in fact a surprise for me that how am I able to talk because I am expressive through dance but not in words.

You’ve been training adults too, so what do you have to say about the new age students?

In this day and age, students are very intelligent but lack patience. They want everything fast but they have self-drive, which is beautiful.

Mirra Arun At Ignite festival

How important is the interaction between art and artists?

For me it is really important and I think I have a big responsibility towards the audience because I have something to say which if they don’t get is of no use. There is obviously room for perspective and right now, I am making works which are just there for the audience. However, that doesn’t mean I would do what they want.