dhoka/Betrayal/

dhoka/Betrayal/
Premiering at JACK
May 15 at 7:30pm with a talkback by IMGE Dance Founder, Ishita Mili
May 16 at 7:30pm
May 17 at 3:00 pm
May 17 at 7:30pm

With a heady, erotic pulse, the sacred energy of fire bubbles over in dhoka/Betrayal/, an intimate dance-theater duet that entangles Hindu goddess Kali’s ultimate power with ethnonationalism. This fire is one that South-Asian artists and physical practitioners have harnessed since ancient times, acting as a reminder of one’s own power and as a tool of resistance. dhoka reclaims this heat to reimagine Kali’s mythology with the eroticism, androgyneity, gore, and epicness that often gets written out of post-colonial South-Asian art. With audiences peering into a fraught ritual between Kali and her follower, dhoka uses these aesthetics to trace the line between salvation and corruption, looking at how religion is used as a tool for propaganda in India. Letting the epic and human dance together, dhoka challenges a Hindu culture that is rapidly masculinizing itself to better fit a world of violence, invoking the feminine with one cathartic cry and a terrifying, bloodied tongue.

Created by ankita sharma
Performed by Eyner Roman and ankita sharma
Lighting & Sound Design by Max Sarkowsky
Vocals by Saluja Siwakoti
Set & Props by Soren Kodak