Lessons from Lavani

As part of UCL's India Voices season, UCL Urban Laboratory hosts Savitri Medhatul and Bhushan Korgaonkar from Mumbai for a one-week festival celebrating and exploring Lavani dance. Lavani is a traditional dance form from Maharashtra, often directly exploring themes of female sexuality, that is currently undergoing an exciting modern urban revival in India.

A number of events will be taking place throughout the week, supported by the UCL Grand Challenge of Cultural Understanding. Please see below and book separately:

Film screening of 'Behind the Adorned Veil'

Tuesday 13 June, 17.00 - 18.30 (Bloomsbury Studio)

Screening of 'Natale Tumchaasaathi - Behind The Adorned Veil' (2008, 60 minutes, with English subtitles) with Q&A afterwards with the director, Savitri Medhatul, and producer, Bhushan Korgaonkar.

This film tells the story of the women who perform Lavani and explores the places where the dance is performed. Their stories are full of love, pain, power, seduction, survival, expectations, dreams and ultimately segregation from Indian society. View a trailer for the film here.

Free entry, but places must be reserved in advance.

Lavani Dance workshop

Wednesday 14 June, 16.00 - 18.00 (Bloomsbury Studio)

Savitri Medhatul will run an English-language introduction to Lavani choreography, singing, body language and improvisation techniques. No prior experience of dance is required and all abilities will be accommodated.

Limited places available to UCL staff and students only by registering here.

Lessons from Lavani seminar

Thursday 15 June, 15.00 - 17.00 (Room 6.02, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, 22 Gordon Street)

In the final event Savitri Medhatul and Bhushan Korgaonkar will discuss how they have engaged over the last decade with the orientation, history and practice of Lavani. They will outline how their interests in Lavani have developed and the challenges and opportunities they have encountered. In particular they will seek to open up a focus on how traditional cultural forms can be reactivated and reimagined for urban audiences without compromising their social relevance, and outline possible further thematic routes and collaborations for their research and activities on Lavani.

To register interest please contact Andrew Harris, andrew.harris@ucl.ac.uk