Caesurae in Conversation with Mundaka

Adriana Drix and Diego Hauptman

Jayita: Thank you Adriana for the awesome photo-clips and the slide show in slow movement. Diego’s photography and his musical drones or after effects with Carsten’s Rudra Veena has created the ambiance of mysticism, which go so well with the concept we have been discussing for a while. What I like in the costumes and postures along with the backdrop and the music mixing is the multiplicity of cultural layers which you have been working with. Somehow, I am reminded of your flamenco beats with the Indian tala games we used to play when you were here in Kolkata some three years ago, on our dreamy boat rides across the Ganges with Diego and our other musician friend. And yes of course the memories of several conversations across time and space with you too blow back to me. We really look forward to watching the video. The visual impact is fascinating and powerful. It’s a play on one’s imagination. Here are some clarifications rather some points which have come to my mind, which would help in the better understanding of the concept for all readers I guess.

Well, Adriana, what was the inspiration for such an artistic conception of the secret dance? Is it spiritual as well as psychological? It kind of reminded me of Jung’s archetypes and his concept of the Anima in the cave.

Adriana: Absolutely. The cave represents myth and mystery. The indomitable feminine nature, the womb, and in that way, as much as potentially dangerous, and a refuge for the brave.

From time immemorial, dance has congregated societies in rites to celebrate and pray for auspicious birth, initiation, harvest, rain and fertility, love and death, as well as to pacify the rage of the elements and the wrath of the Gods. The secret dance is a form of meditation and a “place of prayer”. It's the quest through one´s inner depths through an ocean of “unknownness”. A leap of faith and a moment of silence. Away from the eyes of an audience, dancing secretly in natural grounds is a yogic experience.

This concept has always been there in my dance, what inspired and moved me most from the core, other than performing on stage even. And it is quite different than the everyday riyaz, which also is a form of yoga for me. But in this case here the focus is not on me as a dancer, my technique, or my choreographies, the sculpting of my art, but about the dance itself, that is there before me, beyond me. So, there I am silenced with a purpose that escapes my cognition, where even the concepts of sacred and divine are dissolved into “unknownness”. There I am dressed with surrender and reverence.