The dance of ‘gravitation’

Durgakoteshwar Rao, the young contemporary dancer of the city expresses his thoughts and struggle as a dancer through his choreography.

We tend to relate the word ‘Gravity’ with the scientific theory of ‘Law of Gravitation’, but with a beautiful choreography by Durgakoteshwar Rao, the city experienced a different aspect of gravity that reflects human relation. “I developed the concept of ‘Gravity’ through the attraction-distraction movements, expression using Indian contemporary form,” said the dancer who went through a two year training from Attakkalari, Bangalore and came back to the city recently. He performed with his newly formed six members group named ‘Aabha’.

The concert was laced with five dance items titled- ‘Gravity’, ‘Bho-Shambhu’, ‘Soul’, ‘Mad’ and a special dance item which was an amalgamation of three different dance forms of Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kalaripayattu. ‘Bho-Shambhu’ was a fusion followed by the Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu style based on Natya-Shastra text. ‘Soul’, the solo dance performance of Durgakoteshwar was the life story of his own. “I faced lot of problems when I decided to explore and learn Indian contemporary dance forms. There were no institutions in Hyderabad where one could get to learn and pursue Kalaripayattu or other Indian contemporary dances,” he shared. The dancer is looking for someone with whom he can form a group and start his production work and can create the basic awareness about the dance. He also is trying to provide a learning platform for dance enthusiasts. “Thanks to popular culture like TV reality shows and online videos, youngsters are grooving to contemporary dances. But it is important to learn the basics of that dance form instead of copying from videos. Or else, it could risk a life due to a wrong physical movement”, warned the 26-year old dancer who is trying to establish his signature dance form with the blend of various Indian dance forms from classical to martial arts like Kalaripayattu.