Auroville Cultural Exchange

Video production

"We would like to be able to show the children pictorial representations of what life should be, but we still have not reached that stage, very far from it. Those films are yet to be made. And for the moment, films more often than not show what life should not be, and do so strikingly enough to give you a disgust for it."
The Mother

We are planning a series of videos featuring the most talented dancers of Bharatanatyam and Odissi.The main difference between the existing productions and what were are making is that ours targets specifically the non-Indian audience by bridging the cultural gaps, designed in a special format, and explaining the deeper, mystic meanings of which the absolute majority of dancers even in India are hardly aware. One of the experts that participate in the production is Madhumita Patnaik, a renowned Odissi dancer and guru of Sri Aurobindo Ashram (Pondicherry). The production is to be the result of the research of the sacred temple dance culture of South India and Orissa.

Live performances

Where
Auroville Cultural Exchange has organized live performances in the unadapted, traditional margam format in places like Sri Aurobindo Ashram Theatre (Pondicherry), Alliance Francaise (Pondicherry), Russian Cultural Centre (Chennai), and we are also organizing the adapted performances elsewhere both in India and abroad. Here is such an adapted performance in the SAUCHU building in Bharat Nivas:

There are several places in the Auroville area where these performances are conducted in the adapted formats suitable for the non-Indian audience. You have to inform us of your contact information (full name, telephone, name of the guesthouse/hotel or the address where you are going to stay) if you want to be informed when the location for a particular programme.

Admission
Although most of our programmes are free, in some cases the admission may be limited to those people who make contributions for arranging the performances, due to the space constraints. (You can sponsor a performance for a large number of spectators. For example, to organize performances in Sri Aurobindo Auditorium in Bharat Nivas it will cost Rs.4000 extra, due to its current policy).

As soon as sufficient contributions/donations are received for a particular programme, we will let you know this programme's exact time and date by telephone or by a courier message to the place where you are staying.

How to make your contribution
Click here if you want to make your contribution over the Internet. If you are in the Auroville area, you can go to the Auroville Financial Service in Kuillapalayam or in the Town Hall and pay directly to the Pour Tous account 0274 (Auroville Cultural Exchange). Please keep the receipts.

Lecture-demonstrations

These are conducted by the experienced dancers & guru's and are designed in the formats that are suitable for the non-Indian audience who would like to get to know the deeper layers of the classical Indian dance.

The main difference between an adapted live performance and a lecture-demonstration is the amount of the (1) cultural background explanations and (2) explanations of the dance technique. Some of the lecture-demonstrations include the multimedia presentations.