Alka Raghuram - Interview w/ Artists of 'Invoking the River'

Alka Raghuram designed the multimedia and created the poetry that is an integral part of “Invoking the River” Chitresh Das Dance production premiering at ODC Theater on Oct 14-16, 2022

Shreya: What does Invoking the River mean to you?

Alka: Invoking the River means seeking guidance from the river and really getting in touch with the river because I believe we have so much wisdom to gain from nature. When we don’t do that, then we treat nature as a resource, doing a disservice to ourselves and nature because we ourselves are part of nature. We can easily forget that we have a personal connection with nature. Invoking the River is realigning ourselves to nature and personifying nature so we can get a real sense of the river’s point of view. 

Shreya: Can you talk more about your role in shaping the narrative of the show?

Alka: Charlotte and I have worked together before, and I’ve worked with Pandit Chitresh Das, as well. Charlotte and I have a very organic process of approaching our specific art forms, and it develops in our conversations with each other. As we start shaping our work, the issues and ideas that are important to us start to seep through. These conversations are also important because we understand what’s important to each of us, what we want to work on, and how we can complement each other. 

Charlotte is a master choreographer, and there is a style of storytelling in dance which is very different from media creation or oral storytelling. Charlotte felt that it was important for all of the dancers to be involved in that storytelling process. Since I’m not a dancer – my medium is audio visual – I felt that I could not contribute to the narrative of the dance itself. What was important to me was to create the role of the sutra dhar, or the narrator of the story, a role that is kind of invisible, but sets the context for the story to be understood. Understanding what everyone wanted to do, and also seeing how I could best complement that was a back-and-forth which included a lot of conversations, filming and watching videos, and attending rehearsals. 

Once I understood where each story was going, I created multimedia narratives at the beginning, middle, and end of the performance that set a frame for the dance to be performed and understood. The first video begins with Ganga’s voiceover, the middle has Kaveri and Godavari, which are considered the Gangas of the south, and the end features all the rivers invoking the mysterious Saraswati, who is supposed to be one of the sacred rivers in addition to being the goddess of wisdom. There is no physical trace of Saraswati on earth – it’s a mythological idea. For me, all the rivers are speaking on how they came into being, how they are being treated, and the power that they hold. At the end, they invoke Saraswati to ask her, why did she disappear? What happened to her? Is her fate our fate too? While in the world, the rivers suffer because of our callousness, in the narrative, the rivers are issuing a warning to us – we have more longevity than human beings; we will remain, and it’s your loss if you mistreat us. 

Shreya: As someone skilled in so many art forms, what does your creative process look like?

Alka: As an artist, I do several things simultaneously, and I feel that each informs the other. I bring painting and sculpture to multimedia. Multimedia that I’ve created for Invoking the River both literally and figuratively have my paintings in them. For this and for other collaborations with dancers, I didn’t want the multimedia to overshadow the dancers. It needed to have additional texture, it needed to be more evocative and create that ambiance. I feel like all of my artistic mediums inform each project I do, whether I use them or not. With any process, but especially documentary and film-making – what has helped me is to not have a very defined idea of what I’m going to create. The ideas evolve as I understand each person’s role and contribution, and figuring out where I fit into these ideas to best complement everyone’s work. 

Shreya: Thinking about all the other artists involved in this production, what has your collaborative experience been?

Alka: I have collaborated with Charlotte before, and the dancers have shared their stories with me, so I got a sense of where they were coming from and thought about how I wanted to share their stories through my work. With Utsav, his music is incredible – Utsav, Charlotte, and I have this similar process of how we work and listen to each other, and how we lend our skills to the project. We feel safe sharing our work in progress with each other, knowing that it is still a work in progress. It’s been great, but it’s also because the three of us have such a similar process of not being committed to a vision when it’s a work in progress. We all have such unique skill sets; it’s been amazing putting them together to make something much greater than any of us could have come up with individually. 

Shreya: What are you most excited about in the lead up to the performance? 

Alka: I want to see everything come together – I haven’t seen all of it come together before. I’ve seen bits and pieces, like small pieces Utsav shared with me for the multimedia, but seeing what he’ll come up with on stage is a surprise to me. With the dancers, the dance has been evolving, and everytime I see it, it has taken a new shape. We trust each other, and we trust that every change we make will better the piece in some way – it’s this trust that allows us to surrender ourselves to the process. In all, I can’t wait to see everything come together.

“Invoking the River” premiered Oct 14-16, 2022 at ODC Theater in San Francisco.

Featuring choreography by Charlotte Moraga, music by Utsav Lal, multimedia & poetry by Alka Raghuram. Performances by Chitresh Das Dance Vanita Mundhra, Shruti Pai, Mayuka Sarukkai & Kritika Sharma and live music by Utsav Lal (piano) and Nilan Chaudhuri (tabla).

Alka Raghuram is an award winning filmmaker and a multidisciplinary artist. She was awarded the L’Oreal Woman of Worth Filmmaker Award for her script The Conqueror at Tribeca All Access, and Director of The Year at the IDF Forum, Westlake International Documentary Festival for her feature documentary Burqa Boxers, about Muslim women boxers in Kolkata. Burqa Boxers also won the top prize, Grant Open Doors, at the Locarno Film Festival co-production market. She frequently collaborates with other artists to create narrative performances and installations. Some of her collaborations include “Yatra” with Kathak and Flamenco Dancers Pandit Chitresh Das, and Antonio Hidalgo Paz and “Agni” with choreographer Charlotte Moraga and musician Alam Khan. She recently received a Creative Work Fund grant for a multimedia project called “Invoking The River” about the river Yamuna’s mythological significance and its environmental degradation, in collaboration with Chitresh Das Institute of dance. Alka is currently developing a documentary called Blueprint of Love about serious mental health and a sci-fi fantasy series Krishna 2020. Her feature “In The Ring” , a psychological thriller, is slated to be shot in February 2023.

Shreya Khandewale is a Chitresh Das Youth Company alumni. She started studying Kathak at Pandit Chitresh Das’ institution as a child and continued to study for over a decade. She performed her graduating Youth Company Showcase in 2018 and is now a CDI Community Communications Contributor.