FACETS Choreography Residency 2015

Jayachandran Palazhy - FACETS Director

Jayachandran Palazhy, Founder and Artistic Director of Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, is an internationally sought after dancer and choreographer at the forefront of the contemporary Indian movement arts scene. Through Attakkalari, he has initiated various interlinked programmes including a Diploma in Movement Arts and Mixed Media; Research and Documentation initiatives; Education and Outreach; the internationally reputed Attakkalari Repertory Company; TransMedia Technologies which provides stage solutions; the Attakkalari India Biennial, South Asia’s largest and most important festival of contemporary dance and digital arts; FACETS Choreography Residency; South Asia Platform for emerging choreographers; and Sanchaari Mobile Theatre. Driven by Attakkalari’s underlying philosophy “Traditional Physical Wisdom, Innovation and Technology”, Jay is deeply committed to extending the reach of contemporary movement arts. A physics graduate from Kerala, he trained in India in Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Indian folk dances and the martial art form of Kalarippayattu. He then moved to London, where he lived for 14 years, and trained at the prestigious London Contemporary Dance School and established the Imlata Dance Company, which was supported by Arts Council of England, and several UK based Regional Arts Boards and National Dance Agencies. His path-breaking works make Indian movement expressions of contemporary reality more visible both nationally and internationally. An innovative choreographer, Jay’s collaborations with international artists have resulted in exciting multimedia dance productions including-Beyond the Walls for Men, City Maps, TransAvatar, Purushartha, Chronotopia, For Pina, MeiDhwani and most recently AadhaaraChakra – a Dancelogue - which have received widespread critical acclaim and have been performed at prestigious dance festivals across Europe, Japan, South Korea, India, Malaysia and the UK. He has worked as director, consultant and mentor for dance residencies and festivals in different parts of the world.

MARGIE MEDLIN

Margie Medlin is an internationally recognised artist leading the field of dance and the moving image. For 25 years she has lit and designed performances as well as produced film, video and new media art works. Margie was artist-in-residence at the ZKM Institute for Art and Media, Germany (1999-2001). Between 2000 and 2008 Margie facilitated three Time-Place-Space interdisciplinary labs, she received a Science and Art production award from the Wellcome Trust in London for her Quartet Project. In 2007 Margie became the director of Critical Path, where she creates innovative platforms for creative actions that cross art forms. In 2013 Medlin was nominated for an Arts Asia Award and in 2014 she received an artistic leadership award from the Australia Council of the Arts to research arts networks in Asia and the incubation of media and interdisciplinary arts. Margie has collaborated with many choreographers including Ros Warby, Sandra Parker, Rebecca Hilton, Lucy Guerin, Carol Brown, Russell Dumas, Russell Maliphant, John Jaspers, Gideon Obarzanek, Helen Herbertson and many other international dance-makers.

JONATHAN ROBERTS

Jonathan Roberts has spent the last 15 years exploring technical theatre and dance through numerous performance opportunities and exciting projects. After achieving a First Class Honours degree in Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance he decided to focus more time on developing technical design and production management. Over his three years at Laban and placement with the Merce Cunningham company in New York Jonathan developed a passion for contemporary dance and exploring how technology works alongside. Since graduating he has spent time working with students on performances and events, and continued his studies to gain a teaching qualification. In his current role as Technical Manager at The Backstage Centre, between looking after clients and managing a growing technical team, he spends time training and mentoring students from the Creative and Cultural Skills network to work on live briefs across the year.

MARTIN LUTZ

Martin Lutz is a composer, musician and sound artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. He studied sound art at UdK Berlin and musicology and dramatics at LMU Munich. He now works as a sound designer for live performance in several theatres across Germany and lately at the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts. He has also created several works for radio, music and film as well as plays the violin, percussion and composes electronic music for a number of music groups. Since 2011, he has also collaborated on various sound installations with artists like Peter Cusacks and Sam Auingers on projects such as Berlin Sonic Places and Sonic Places Linzer. Recently, he was involved in the conception of the sound art studio Annoraaq in Berlin.

NEEL CHAUDHURI,

Neel Chaudhuri is a New Delhi-based playwright and director. He is a Founder and Artistic Director of The Tadpole Repertory, one of Delhi’s most prominent and prolific theatre groups. Neel studied history and film besides spending a year working in Berlin before returning to India to work in the theatre. He was the Artistic Director of The First City Theatre Foundation from 2006 to 2009 where he wrote and directed his first five plays. In 2010, his play Taramandal won the MetroPlus Playwright Award and he also received a 50th Anniversary Grant from the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan for the play, Ich bin Fassbinder. His play Still and Still Moving (2011) was developed with the Royal Court Theatre in London. Neel’s most recent production as a director is a critically acclaimed version of The Winter’s Tale. He is also actively involved in Delhi’s campus theatre circuit as a guest director and mentor to college theatre groups. Neel is a recipient of the 2014 Vinod Doshi Fellowship from the Sahitya Rangabhoomi Pratishthan for his work in the theatre.

PHILIPPE SAIRE

To this day a key figure in the Swiss, as well as the global contemporary dance scene, Philippe Saire has produced some thirty shows, in addition to in situ performances, short films and workshops. His interests include visual arts, theatre, music, cinema, performing arts, and lighting, always focusing on intense and refined productions. Philippe is driven by a desire not to repeat himself, thus creating work that is constantly new and reimagined. Vacarme, Étude sur la Légèreté, Vie et Mœurs du Caméléon Nocturne, La Haine de la Musique, Les Affluents, [ob]seen, Could I just draw your attention to the brevity of life? the Cartographies series and Black Out are some of the productions that have enabled Compagnie Philippe Saire to build an international reputation, performing over 1,000 shows in over 180 cities all over the world since its inception in 1986.

SAMAR GREWAL

Samar Grewal is a musician, composer, sound designer and singer. He has trained in Western Classical guitar and has attended Berklee College of Music, Boston (2003-04). Besides composing and performing live, he has also written about music as Music Editor at Time Out Delhi and as Assistant Editor at Rolling Stone India. He works primarily in theatre, dance-theatre and short film and also plays guitar in a very noisy band called Hoirong.