The dance component of the popular Darbar Festival in 2018 was curated by Akram Khan, and featured three different disciplines of Indian dance, Bharatanatyam, Odissi and Kathak. Using 441 hanging pendant lightbulbs we created a light source, backdrop and ‘temple of lights’ for two nights of Indian dance.

The bulb installation was first devised for the 2017 festival by Aideen Malone and Akram Khan, and this year we were able to build on their work to further exploit the installation and its flying technology to develop more complicated patterns, both static and kinetic. Hanging from 21 individually flown lighting bars, we used the full potential of Sadler’s Wells’ Stage Technology / Tait Industries Nomad powered flying system, which helped the bulbs provide illumination but more, also backdrop and scenography.

Photographs by Ambra Vernuccio / ambravernuccio.com