At the 2014 Tari festival, January Low and Rathimalar Govindarajoo presented a piece titled “rehab”. They now share their inspiration for the piece and the documentation of its development.
When we two dancers—January Low and Rathimalar Govindarajoo—started to work together, we came up with some words which resonated with us. Rebirth. Renew. Release. Recover. Rediscover. Every word started with the pre-fix “re-”. When the word “rehab” popped up we knew instantly that that would be the title of our piece.
We knew that we wanted the work to be slow but strong and we made sure that the piece was strongly connected to the title. We were interested in how we saw ourselves in each other. We were also intrigued by the theory of parallel universes, that there could be another self existing at this very moment, and we wondered what would happen if the two worlds met.
In our work, the use of breath was crucial to form organic movements, because the work itself reflects the sense of peace, calm, serenity, therapy and internalisation that dance brings to us. We also focused on trying to bring out emotions from within and keeping the movements minimal.
Although we knew that we had to perform at Tari, there was no pressure to complete the piece in a significant amount of time. We agreed to have fun and enjoy the entire creative process, which we have, immensely.
We documented the development of the work exhaustively, and you can see some of our work-in-progress videos, writings and thoughts through the links below.
Links:
January’s Blog:
http://www.januarism.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-premiere-of-rehab.html
http://www.januarism.blogspot.com/2014/11/master-class-rehab-tari-14.html
Rathimalar’s YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc13kW_rYBQPkIpbvnzz4rg
January’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrtaWBetyyWuN8iNUTZiKw
rehab YouTube playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNTGZ66bNBO9ruY_PzLyeMDFg-2LmxAx3
The Star Interview by Sharmilla Ganesan:
http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Entertainment/Arts/On-Stage/2014/11/12/Rathimalar-Govindarajoo-and-January-Low-dance-their-way-through-rehab/
Rathimalar Govindarajoo is a dancer/choreographer with more than twenty-five years of experience.
To contact Rathimalar:
; danceodyssey.wix.com/rathimalar
January Low aspires to continue dancing to keep the tradition of Odissi alive in Malaysia.
To contact January:
; januarylow.wix.com/januarylow
Featured photo: Rathimalar Govindarajoo and January Low in a publicity shot for “rehab“.