Morris-Natyam excerpts from Friday twilight 2024 @ Potteries Museum, stoke on trent

Morris-Natyam
Our aim is to explore the integration and fusion of two traditional dance styles: the English morris dance and the Bharatanatyam of southern India. The prospect being innovation from unusual juxtaposition or cross fertilisation of cultures to produce something that might be greater than the sum of the parts.
The music and dance from each culture have considerably differences. So, to find any common ground at all, we looked for stylistic similarities and cultural parallels. Important to the Bharatanatyam is the mime element that often relates tales from Hindu culture. The English morris dance has no narrative element but, traditionally, is linked to seasonal customs and festivals and thereby is associated with the narrative of nature’s cycle and its communal veneration. There are parallels in Indian culture where seasonal festivals are based around similar themes and at similar times of the year. One example being the purging fires of English Autumnal festivals (Halloween, Bonfire Night) and the burning of the effigy of the demon at the Hindu festival of Vijayadashami.
Working around the central theme of the changing seasons the dancers first create dances in their own traditional styles and then let the styles mingle - dancing each others steps, using each others style of music and creating something new out of the convergence - Morris-Natyam.