L’India tra Sacro e Performativo

by Attakkalari Dance Company Jayachandran Palazhy ed Hemabharathy Palani (IN),

Massimiliano Troiani

and Antonella Usai (IT)

Villa Simonetta, Verbania

14.06.2025/From 2.30 p.m. until 9.00 p.m.

15.06.2025/From 2.30 p.m. until 9.00 p.m.

Cost:Free entry with donation

Info and Reservations: +39 351 8081786 | info@crossproject.it

In collaboration with: AIT - Asia Institute Turin (Pages of Asia - Facebook and YouTube channels) | NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan and CRISOL project

The themes of the festival are also explored through video content in an installation exhibition. From the wide field of Shiva Yatra, a documentary by Massimiliano Troiani that traverses the places of pilgrimage dear to the god Shiva, we come to a narrow focus on Attakkalari, the main organisation dedicated to contemporary dance in India, passing through the video Il ritmo che crea by Antonella Usai that delves into the indissoluble bond between dance rhythm and life in the practice and philosophical vision underlying all Indian performing arts.

Exhibition works:

Shiva Yatra

Massimiliano Troiani (IT)

Looping video

33 min

Shiva Yatra is a solitary journey through water, fire, and ash — the elements that bear the imprints of the most enigmatic figure in the Hindu universe: Shiva. The documentary unfolds like a notebook of memories, a collection of impressions from many journeys that blur into the indelible traces left by this dark god in the history of India. Signs of his presence are reflected not only in dance, rituals, gestures, and temples, but also in everyday Indian life, which often seems to move in time with the rhythms set by the ascetic god — the dancer, the luminous one, Lord of the Animals, divine yogin, the auspicious one. In Hindi, Yatra means pilgrimage, and this film too becomes a pilgrimage — a path that follows in the footsteps of this powerful and ancient deity of the Hindu pantheon, widely venerated across India, and often likened to the Dionysus of ancient Greece. Shiva Yatra explores various forms of devotion to the ash-covered god adorned with skull necklaces, especially in the southern regions of the subcontinent. It enters numerous temples, most notably in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, where Shiva is said to have revealed himself in his form as the Lord of Dance — just one among the many manifestations that define him: Lord of creation, destruction, time, death, and animals. The film attempts to portray one of the most iconic and elusive figures of Hindu spirituality, drawing on passages from the many sacred texts dedicated to the worship of Shiva.

Credits
Director: Massimiliano Troiani | Editing: Riccardo Micalizio | Narrator: Toni Bertorelli | Indian text consultant: Rossana Gatteschi | Production La Grande Opera - Rome

Il Ritmo che Crea: la danza indiana e il suo linguaggio
Antonella Usai (IT)

27 min

Looping video

In this conversation, Antonella Usai explores the importance of rhythm in Indian dance — a central element that connects movement, expression, and spirituality. Through her accounts of apprenticeship experiences, the reading of poetic and philosophical texts, and the sharing of meaningful performances, the video offers an in-depth perspective on the Indian choreographic tradition. It also includes a brief moment of practical demonstration, highlighting the inseparable connection between intellectual inquiry and physical practice.
"L’India in salotto" was a cultural initiative promoted by the Asia Institute Torino, featuring a series of events dedicated to the rich and multifaceted traditions of Indian culture. The program explored various aspects of Indian heritage, including poetry and spirituality, myth and visual arts, music and dance, yoga and Ayurveda. India emerges as a vibrant laboratory where tradition and modernity intertwine, giving rise to both captivating expressions and inherent tensions and contradictions.

Crediti
Ideazione e creazione: Antonella Usai | Collaborazione con AIT - Asia Institute Torino | Con il Patrocinio di: Ambasciata dell'India a Roma, Città Metropolitana di Torino e Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte, nell’ambito di SRIJAN-IL FESTIVAL DELL'INDIA IN ITALIA | Coordinamento: Irma Piovano e Victor Agostini | Videographer and graphic designer: Federica Bagagiolo | Web: Marinella Tenaglia | Marketing strategist & Seo specialist | Fonte: Pagine d’Asia - Facebook e YouTube

Digital India

JEEVA PRAVAAHA - SOUL OF THE SOIL - NAVA DURGA - VANNA VATIVUKAL
Attakkalari Dance Company, Jayachandran Palazhy ed Hemabharathy Palani (India)

Installation video in loop

40 min

In collaboration with NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan, and the CRISOL project
The connection between Attakkalari and CROSS dates back to 2017, when CROSS Festival invited choreographer Jayachandran Palazhy to Verbania’s Teatro Il Maggiore with his performance Bhinna Vinyasa, and hosted dancer and choreographer Hemabharathi Palani in the cloister of the Museo del Paesaggio. This time, the exchange is reversed. Antonella Cirigliano and Federico Torre followed the rehearsals and production process of four pieces by the renowned Indian company, which draws on Bharatanatyam, Kalaripayattu, and Kathakali as foundational tools for developing contemporary choreographies that are both evocative and visually dreamlike. By blending video, lighting, costumes, and stage props, Attakkalari reinterprets its cultural heritage through a contemporary lens. The result is a video installation, a video art project edited and directed by Stefania Carbonara. The installation, on display in Verbania during CROSS Festival 2024, includes rich visual documentation featuring interviews and the introduction of the Nagarika project, led by Jayachandran himself. Nagarika is a digital archive chronicling the history of movement in India and its religious and ritual dimensions.

Credits
A CROSS Project, Attakkalari Centre for Movements Arts, Fondazione Fabbrica Europa | As part of the CRISOL- creative processes | In collaboration with NABA, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milano | Video editing by Stefania Carbonara

Massimiliano Troiani, born in Rome, began his film experience at a very young age alongside his father. In 1975, he founded a theatre company whose productions toured not only various European countries but also India, China, Turkey, and Pakistan. In 1992, he was commissioned to direct In Praise of Folly (by Erasmus of Rotterdam), with original music by Fabrizio De André and Mauro Pagani, and set design by Enzo Cucchi. After collaborating with Piero Angela, he made documentaries in several African countries, Latin America, and India. His works have been broadcast by all three RAI networks. In 2002, he was invited to India to direct a staging of The Aeneid. In 2003, he published Voci dal cortile, a book of photographs and notes from Africa, presented by the Mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, with a preface by Alex Zanotelli. In 2005, I rigettati di K. was selected for screening at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival. In 2006, he produced two documentaries in Burkina Faso. In 2008, his photography exhibition By the Rivers of Babylon was invited to the United Nations’ Glass Palace in New York; the catalogue was introduced by writer Erri De Luca. Since 2014, he has taught photography and directing in Morocco, Rwanda, and Sudan, and continues to work as a director on various productions, including Ashes of Gandhi (Gandhi Museum in Madurai, India, 2020), Tamil Nadu (India), a documentary on Indian temples from the Pallava and Chola periods (2024), and a production of Macbeth, presented in New Delhi and selected among the best performances of the Indian theatre season in 2024.

Antonella Usai is a dancer and relational artist whose work has long been driven by the connection between art, nature, and society. She holds a Master’s degree in Theatre History from the University of Turin, has a solid background in contemporary dance, and completed postgraduate studies in Bharatanatyam—Indian classical dance—at the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad, India. For over thirty years, she has been active in the fields of dance education and choreography in Italy and abroad. As an independent artist, she has collaborated with numerous companies, including La Grande Opera, Controluce Teatro d’Ombre, Zet Tanztheater, Rigolo Tanzendes Theater, and Darpana Performing Group. In 2009, she founded the dance company NAD, a namesake cultural association, and Terra NAD, a bio-architecture centre created to foster human development through artistic practices and the promotion of a systemic vision. Antonella Usai also serves as an artistic consultant for Hangar Piemonte, and is a resident artist at MAO – Museum of Oriental Art in Turin, with which she has been collaborating since its inception.

The Attakkalari Dance Company is the performance wing of the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts, India’s leading organisation for contemporary dance. The company performs both nationally and internationally, presenting productions at the cutting edge of the Indian contemporary dance scene. Its choreographies often integrate the latest digital arts, creative lighting design, and innovative music.

Jayachandran Palazhy is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and the artistic director of the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts in Bangalore. His work has significantly influenced the development of contemporary dance in India. Jayachandran’s training includes contemporary dance, ballet, Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Kalaripayattu, Tai Chi, Capoeira, as well as Indian and African folk dance traditions. His transdisciplinary productions—created in collaboration with international artists—and his multimedia dance works have toured widely and received critical and public acclaim.

Stefania Carbonara, born in 1992, studied graphic design at the Paul Klee Art School in Genoa and graduated in 2016 in Media Design and Multimedia Arts from NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan. In the same year, she handled photography and filming for the Life Augmented / Regista d’Impresa commercial for the company STMicroelectronics, directed by Vittoria Maiolo, with whom she continues to collaborate.