In Ananya Dance's 'Antaranga,' women pave a path for a better world

At her speech at the Democratic National Convention last summer, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords enunciated a clear message: "Strong women get things done," she said.

With Vice President Kamala Harris on the presidential ballot this year, and female leaders and advocates making change all over the world, Gifford's quote has particular resonance.

Here in Minnesota, Ananya Dance Theater has its own message about the power of women in a piece that explores an imagined world where women of color embark to heal a broken world.

"Antaranga: Between You and Me" is the first in a duology of dance works that will culminate next year for ADT's 20th-anniversary season. The two-day show debuts Friday at St. Paul's O'Shaughnessy, before going on a national tour, hitting Chicago, Sheboygan, Wis., Washington, D.C., and Chilmark, Mass.

The work is set in a world like ours, where everyone has lost the ability to empathize. Instead, they fight for food and other resources.

Enter a group of humsafar, which translates to travel companions in Urdu. These wanderers are a feminine force moving through time and space, and they have powers of connection and healing.

Choreographer and artistic director Ananya Chatterjea harnesses her power as a dance creator to envision pathways for a better world.

"This seemed like the work we needed to do to survive," she said. "I'm responding to what I'm seeing in the world around me. We need to heal from the difficulty of this moment. We need to push past all the distorted reality images that are cropping up."

Creating dance works in an election year, Chatterjea said, means working through an increased level of distortion, where it becomes harder and harder to suss out what's real and what's true from the onslaught of messages spread by different political factions and spin machines.

"There's heightened stakes in the election, and then there is the mess that is always trying to prevent us from seeing the reality," Chatterjea said. "This greater grab for power does not take care of people. So, we have to find our belonging with each other. That's what I think I've been trying to find in this work."

ADT often uses narrative tools as a vehicle for message-oriented dance work. Through visuals, sound and movement, Chatterjea conjures through storytelling a notion of what liberation might mean.

"Antaranga" features a score by Greg Schutte, with vocals by Hindustani (North Indian classical) singer Pooja Goswami Pavan, Iranian musician Aida Shahghasemi and the experimental vocal sound artist Mankwe Ndosi.

Also among the collaborators is Sharon Bridgforth, a writer and theater artist, who worked as dramaturg for the project. She helped develop the mythology embedded in the narrative and fine-tune the story's characters who hail from the planet Chiron (the Wounded Healer planet). Among them is the Healer, performed by Parisha Rajbhandari, the Magic Worker by Kealoha Ferreira and the Lightning Striker by Noelle Awadallah.

Bridgforth also offered an outside eye and pushed the creative team to probe more deeply into the central issues of the piece.

When she watched a run-through of the dance, the power of women was a major theme that jumped out.

"I think it's essential if we're going to survive, if we're going to remember how to treat the earth," Bridgforth said, adding that despite our differences we have to learn to lean into each other.

She not only found the dance beautiful, but felt a powerful emotional connection as well.

"It just burst my heart open, and I saw rage and trauma transformed into magic and power and light," she said.

A key part of Chatterjea's vision, according to Bridgforth, is love. "It's the only thing that's going to save us — to love something bigger than ourselves, so that our little minds don't keep us trapped, and so that we are brave enough to try opening even when we're devastated," Bridgforth said. "I think that's exactly what this piece helps us do."

Choreographically, Chatterjea says she's exploring the limits of the company's dance vocabulary and its roots in Eastern India's Odissi dance form, Vinyasa yoga and the martial art form Chhau.

Each world the dancers pass through informs the movements, Chatterjea said.

In the shadow world at the beginning of the piece, the choreography draws on ritual as well as references to animal forms. Later, when the humsafar pass through a world of mirrors, the dance pushes toward extremes. The final section, in a world of honey, the dance becomes expansive.

"It's about finding erotic longing and softness," Chatterjea said.

The work features large ensemble dance pieces, as well as solo dances and small group work.

Chatterjea performs in a trio with Ferreira (the Magic Worker) and Awadallah (the Lightning Striker). Chatterjea plays the Wound Carrier.

"They bring me back to a sense of being able to stand on my own," Chatterjea said.

'Antaranga: Between You and Me'

When: 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat.

Where: The O'Shaughnessy, 2004 Randolph Av., St. Paul.

Tickets: $5-$35. 651-690-6700, oshag.stkate.edu