Returning to the successful Darbar Festival in 2019 to light a dance programme curated by Akram Khan, performed again in the 1500 seat Sadler’s Wells Theatre.

The highlight for me was Mavin Khoo’s RAVANA, exploring three scenes from the epic, and choreographed on a Malaysian all-male Bharatanatyam ensemble, accompanied by female musicians. A story full of symbolism, danced with great energy by the Temple of Fine Arts Inner Space Dance that we enhanced with further theatricality in this performance.

Also featured in the festival was the Odissi dance style. In Madhavi Mudgal’s VISTAR, eight classical Indian dancers performed shorter pieces with a very different feel, placing this traditional dance form in a contemporary framework.

This lighting design features a bulb installation first devised for the 2017 festival by Aideen Malone and Akram Khan. Using 441 pendant lights hanging from 21 individually flown lighting bars, the bulbs provide illumination but more: also backdrop and scenography for two nights of Indian dance.
Photographs by Rehmat Rayatt / rehmatrayatt.com