Timeless
  • Choreography: Aditi Mangaldas
  • Group Performance / Live Music On Recorded Track
  • Troupe: 7 Dancers, 3 Musicians, 2 Tech Person- Light and Sound, 1 Manager
  • Music Composition: Shubha Mudgal And Aneesh Pradhan
  • Stage Design: Anuradha Parikh
  • Duration: 1 Hour 7 Min.
  • Premiere: Hong Kong, 2006

"What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; If I wish to explain to the one who asks, I know not" St. Augustine

Choreographer's note: ‘Timeless’ is not an answer, not a statement, not an opinion nor a single perspective. It is a question....infact many questions. It is an attempt to see...to feel...to experience…to hear...to touch this intangible, wonder filled thing called TIMELESS.....maybe one sees it as time related to space, maybe one hears it as an eternal flow, maybe one perceives it as totally still….maybe? Aditi Mangaldas

Is time reversible?
Is there time, or are there many times?
Is time still?
Is time parallel?
Does time flow?
Can we hold time past and time future in time present?
Is time flexible?
Is time cyclic?
Does time trip?
Does time end?

“Contemplative, almost throaty sounds with a vortex-like effect cast their spell on the audience. Rich earthy, long drawn out sounds allow the audience to experience the movements of the seven male and female dancers up close…precisely matching the changing musical rhythms, brought to live by the dancers with their masterly control over their bodies, their powerful and precise footwork but also through sublime hand, in particular, finger images/movements…the audience was simply fascinated by this experimental art, cutting across borders...―As is if each finger was speaking a language of its own…A performance which enthralled the audience.” Konstanze Führlbeck, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 2013. [Translated from German]

“The works brought to Scotland were edited down from their full-length versions. Yet even in the form of extended extracts, the probing intelligence behind both of them shone through brightly…Timeless in some ways was the more conceptually ambitious piece. Here Mangaldas and company are questioning the nature of time…there was a sense that Mangaldas and company were on the hunt for something elusive but worth investigating. As a performer Mangaldas exudes a strong presence but laces this power with a delicacy and sense of detail…Into the group activities of both works she folded a pair of short but classy and contrasting dances for herself…The solo in Timeless was softer, slower and mainly floor-bound, her hands fluttering like moths near head and torso and fingertips touching one after another like the tiny hands of a timepiece.” Donald Hutera, 2012

“Aditi's own superb dancing and excellent technique held the evening together……There are images which one recalls long after the performance is over……. Contemporary Choreography in Indian dance has moved towards abstraction, and a cerebral high, taking audiences to different experiential levels.” Dr. Sunil Kothari - www. Narthaki.com, 2009