Reclaim – Bodies frame a century-old space breathing in life and rhythm

Project Date

April 2025

Brief Overview

Artsforward has been celebrating this International Dance Day though events, conversations and collaborations through its tenure. This year we are proud to collaborate with Kolkata Restorers, Calcutta Instagrammers and Roy Calcutta to mark this important day

Reclaim is a citizen-led, artist-led initiative to invite the city inside timeless built heritage spaces of our city that need attention and care.

Dance needs spaces. Spaces need living bodies. A collaboration on International Dance Day to send bodies back to spaces they belong in. Reimagining and reframing architectural spaces through movement and rhythm.

Earlier a video of this unusual space-movement symphony was conceptualised, shot and edited by Calcutta Instagrammers led by Sammyabrata Mullick and released on the morning of Dance Day. The video has received more than 60,000 views.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJBFuHgTQHx/?igsh=MTFrdjZiOXZrMm5sNA==

Performers of the evening included Debjit Mahalanobis, a pioneering double bassist from India, known for his performances with national and international symphony orchestras, in movies and on television. He was joined by a team of city-based dancers from varied styles and training: Senior Odishi dancer, choreographer and teacher Monami Nandy, Ballet and contemporary performer and teacher Asish Singha, Model and performer Ekluvya Bera, along with young dancers Shreya Acharyya, Subhankar Mondal, Sayan Das, Shayak Tarafder and Sankalita Chakraborty performed for the event. The short performance was devised by Paramita Saha, performer, curator and arts manager, Co-Founder-Director Artsforward

For this performance, artist and designer Abhisek Roy of Roy Calcutta clothed the performers with colourful and comfortable dhotis, pants and airy cotton shirts.

We are deeply indebted to Mr Inbaraj and his visionary team at National Insurance Co. for allowing us access into the century-old Royal Insurance Building at BBD Bag. With his support we were able to reimagine this intricately crafted space in a novel and dynamic way. This project would have not materialised without the vision of Mr Mudar Patherya of The Kolkata Restorers.