“Debuting for AsiaTOPA with four shows at the Arts Centre Melbourne in Feb 2017, One Beautiful Thing sees renowned circus-arts theatre company Circa collaborate with practitioners of the Indian wrestling sport Mallakhamb to deliver this feature-length work. Commissioned by AsiaTOPA and developed between India and Australia the work sees six Mallakhamb performers and piano virtuoso Utsav Lal collaborate with the Circa ensemble under the direction of Yaron Lifshitz. One Beautiful Thing seeks to ‘bring two cultures face to face’ and to contrast and reflect those cultures in pursuit of creating ‘one beautiful thing’. Set in three parts, the work moves between Circa’s trademark acrobatics and dramatism while inserting nuances of Indian culture and life and the Mallakhamb tools of acrobatics into the conceptual narrative. This video is from Part 2 which seeks the impossible ‘still point of a turning world’ (TS Eliot).  Extreme stillness and movement vigorously contrast through duets and solos of exquisite detail. Utsav Lal performs a contemporary piano raga – a virtuosic encounter between classical piano and classical form creating a dramatic new musical idiom. The search here is personal, intimate and the journey is towards self. Artists from Mallakhamb India and CIRCA Contemporary Circus peform to music composed and performed by Utsav Lal.”

 

 

You can also hear Yaron Lifshitz and Utsav Lal speak about the work on this radio interview link http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/p…