Location Bunjil Place Studio
2 Patrick NE Drive
Narre Warren VIC 3805
Cost Adult: $20.00
Concession: $15.00
Type
Performance
Visual Rating 50%
Inspired by contemporary, classical Indian postmodern aesthetics, this rich work uses music, dance and stunning visuals, along with an exquisite, moving Carnatic choir of 12 women, to create a spectacular, immersive storytelling experience that is both harrowing and moving.
The Durga Chronicles by Priya Srinivasan is a collaboration with Uthra Vijay, Philipa Rothfield and supported by Govin Ruben, Hari Sivanesan, Marcus Salvagno, Priyadarsini Govind, Lalita Ramona Yagnik and the Keerthana Women’s Choir. With special guests Menaka Thomas and Susmitha Ravi.
In Hindu mythology, Durga is the Goddess of protection, motherhood and war; recognised as the carrier of feminine strength. The Durga Chronicles draws on the stories of women who have been harmed in different parts of the world and harnesses the force of Durga to provoke empowered resistance against gendered violence.
Winner of the Prestigious 2023 Green Room Award for “Breaking Ground” which is an unprecedented event in the history of Australian dance.
The Durga Chronicles premiered at Melbourne’s Arts House in 2022 to great acclaim with support from Creative Victoria, Australia Council, Insite Arts, Abbotsford Convent, VicHealth, Indian Care and MAV.
Following each performance there will be circles of conversation with diverse, multicultural, inter-faith community members, leaders, psychologists and social justice workers to discuss resistance against gendered violence and to empower those who identify as women. Please stay and join us to discuss these important issues.
Dates and Times
Immediately following the performance on Saturday 7 October and Sunday 8 October
6.00 pm – 7.30 pm
Duration: 1 hour
Free for all ticket holders
The Circles of Conversation event explores the themes and topics presented in The Durga Chronicles from financial abuse to shame and allyship. The event is curated by Veronica Pardo (former CEO Multicultural Arts Victoria, Executive Director Arts Access Australia) and Malavika Kadwadkar, in collaboration with other cultural leaders.
The format is a deliberate departure from western style panels. The room is set up with round tables, each with a topic, a host and a scribe. Chai and samosa is served and audiences are invited to mingle and move between tables. Curator Veronica Pardo invites leaders to share their discussions, experience and strategies. Following the event, resources are available via the Bunjil
Content note If this information is distressing for you or if you need support in regard to sexual assault, domestic or family violence you can call 1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732 for 24/7 phone and online services.
If you, a child, or another person is in immediate danger, call 000.
Artist Statement (Content Warning)
Gendered violence is endemic and remains under-addressed in the artistic landscape. On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. 1 in 3 Australian women (30.5%) has experienced physical violence since the age of 15. 10,350 cases of rape and assault were reported in Victoria in 2021 out of an additional 30,000 believed to be unreported. Bringing South Asian forms in experimental ways of knowing, The Durga Chronicles allows us to engage with this issue through referencing the feminine power that emerges from ancient stories and mythology. The goddess (Durga/Mariamman/Korravai) is a living entity deeply connected to community, land, and nature, manifested and celebrated today through song and movement by Hindu and Tamil people wherever they go. This work brings these understandings of multiplicity into a contemporary and experimental experience to see how knowledges that are oral, textual, ritual, and embodied can provoke action.
The Durga Chronicles attends to the demons who destroy “everyday” women today through rape and/or murder told through a collaborative feminist lens enabling us to see two worlds simultaneously. In one, women are raped, choked, strangled, smothered, silenced, beheaded, dismembered, brutalised, and violated in dehumanising ways, and in another The Primordial Female Principle - who is both human and non-human, multi-armed and weaponised, benign and rageful when required - will annihilate demonic action in all its form of greed, lust, desire, rapaciousness, and violence when summoned. It asks the question: do these worlds bleed and blur and if so, how can the potential power of the Female Principle through collective action enable change?
- Priya Srinivasan and Philipa Rothfield
Original Concept and Artistic Director: Priya Srinivasan
Co-Performance Director and Co-Choreographer: Priya Srinivasan
Co-Performance Director and Co-Choreographer: Philipa Rothfield
Composer, Arrangement and Choir Musical Director: Uthra Vijay
Composer, Arrangement and Musician: Hari Sivanesan
Production Design: Govin Ruben
Filmmaker: Marcus Salvago
Dancer and Collaborator (on film): Priyadarsini Govind
Dancer: Priya Srinivasan
Choir: Keerthana Music School
Lead Choir Performer: Uthra Vijay
Choir Performers: Janani Ganeshan, Jayashree Shenvi, Lakshmi Suthakar, Latha Ravi, Mythili Srinivasan, Nandini Venkat Subramoney, Rama Subramanian, Savitha Bingekar, Sharda Symons, Sumathy Raja, Vijayanthi Ravi
Producers: Insite Arts (Jason Cross and Beth Raywood Cross)
Supported by
The Durga Chronicles has been co-commissioned by Arts House and MAV through Diasporas; and has also received generous support from Abbotsford Convent through their Pivot residency program. The Durga Chronicles has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body and the City of Melbourne through Arts House.
Dancer, Choreographer and Writer
Priya Srinivasan is a dancer/choreographer/writer whose performances work towards social justice issues. She has choreographed several solo, duet, ensemble and large-scale projects internationally and nationally for festivals and has collaborated on major projects with the Hermitage Museum Amsterdam, Berlin Wall Memorial, Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai, Typografia Gallery Romania, Showroom Gallery London, Dakshina Chitra and Spaces Chennai, Adishakti Puducherry, Highways Los Angeles, DCA Darwin, Dancehouse and Bunjil Place. Her large span of intercultural work focuses primarily on feminist collaborations most notable of which is “Churning Waters” a feminist Indigenous Indian work which was selected to tour India for Australia Festival and more recently a series of hybrid online and live performance works with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. She is also the author of the award winning book “Sweating Saris: Indian Dance as Transnational Labour.” She is the co-Artistic Director of Sangam: Performing Arts Platform and Festival of South Asia and Diaspora which she founded in 2019 featuring over 200 artists on funded platforms as a corrective to the lack of opportunities for artists of colour in Melbourne.
Philosopher
Philipa Rothfield is a philosopher working in relation to and through dance on Wurundjeri land. She is a feminist academic, reviews dance, and practises a number of movement modalities, including improvisation, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Yoga. She was a member of Margaret Lasica’s Modern Dance Ensemble. She is the author of Dance and the Corporeal Uncanny (Routledge, 2021), Co-Editor of the Dancehouse Diary, and Creative Advisor at Dancehouse. She is the Chair of the Green Room Awards Dance Panel, and has served as Judge of Dance and Physical Theatre for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. She holds a number of academic positions at Melbourne and La Trobe Universities, currently teaches in Dance, at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University and is an honorary professor at the University of Southern Denmark.
Classical Singer and Composer
Uthra Vijay is a classical singer and composer based in Melbourne and director of the Keerthana Music School and Keerthana Women’s Choir. She is a co-curator of Sangam: Performing Arts Festival of South Asia and Disapora. She has participated in several festivals such as Mapping Melbourne, Jaipur Literary Festival and AsiaTOPA and worked nationally and internationally establishing herself as a much sought out artist in the South Asian arts scene. She has worked extensively on site specific intra and intercultural performances with Iranian, Yiddish, Surinamese, Flamenco and Indigenous singers in Melbourne, London, Hamburg, Berlin, Amsterdam, Chennai, Bangalore and Barcelona.
Composer and Multi-instrumentalist
Composer and multi-instrumentalist, Hari Sivanesan of Sri Lankan origin trained in the UK and is a unique representation of Indian classical-contemporary artists of international acclaim. He has pioneered projects in partnership with BBC Radio & TV, BBC Proms, WOMAD, Royal Opera House and Multicultural Arts Victoria and is co-Artistic Director of Sangam, Performing Arts Festival of South Asia.