Kickstarter

ANIKAI Dance Company is embarking on the MOST EXTENSIVE TOUR OF INDIA by a US dance company since 1926 when Ruth St. Denis took her Denishawn Dancers. For the people of India to see physically strong, powerful women (and one man!) take the stage and perform viscerally charged, athletic choreography will be a cultural ground-breaking of enormous proportion. ANIKAI has been invited to tour seven cities across India from January 10th through February 20th, 2011. We will be performing in Delhi, Chennai, Ranchi, Trissur, Pondicherry, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

In addition to performing, ANIKAI dancers will teach movement workshops in "corporation" schools (schools for the poorest kids), battered women’s shelters and schools for the Deaf.

We will tour two of our evening-length works: He Who Burns (www.akhra.org/anikaiweb/hwb) and Forest (www.akhra.org/anikaiweb/forest).

He Who Burns is a trio, a dance drama centering on the figure of Iblis, or Satan, in some Sufi traditions. He Who Burns employs dance and theater techniques, poetry, original music and video projection, to explore the love triangle between Satan, God and Humanity.

Forest, a work for seven dancers, takes us into the archetypal world of the forest, the jungle. Throughout the world, the forest is seen as a place of transformational magic. Heroes of the world's epics must pass through the forest in order to fully realize themselves. The forest is a world of elicit trysts, of confrontations between opposing forces. ANIKAI Dance takes you into this world at its roots, draws you into its branches, and sends you flying up through the canopy.

Our expenses in India - room and board and domestic travel - are being covered by our presenters. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations will provide our tickets TO India. We need to raise $6000 to get us back home.

We need your help.

You can donate to the company, or choose a specific dancer to sponsor. You can see profiles of all the dancers who will be going on the tour at www.akhra.org/anikaiweb/profiles. The ANIKAI dancers who will be performing on this tour are: Wendy Jehlen, DeAnna Pellecchia, Pradhuman Nayak, Terra Weaver, Mila Thigpen, Neva Cockrell, Maki Somekawa and Kim Eun Jung. If you wish to sponsor a specific dancer, please send us a note through kickstarter or to akhra@akhra.org.

In a rapidly shrinking world, it is essential that we come to understand each other's cultures and find commonalities in the tremendous diversity of cultures in which we live. As artists, we strive toward this understanding through sharing our stories with our audiences.

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"Wendy Jehlen is a captivating choreographer, with sharp musical sensibilities, an affinity for the natural integration of modern and world dance styles, and a deep sensitivity to the connections between human body movements and moods." - Backstage.com

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photo: Yi-Chun Wu
video: Nandlal Nayak, Charles Daniels, and Solid Angle Productions