Site-specific dance performance & dance film created at Shalimar Hotel during the Khoj International Artist Residency in Pune/India. Generously supported by The Good Artists of Pune, TIFA & the Goethe Institute Delhi.

Developed in 2015
4 dancers
Performance length: 40 min
Dance film length: 9:16 min
Concept & Choreography: Svea Schneider
Camera: Ben Lenzner, Sharad Deshmukh, Omkar Kukade
Editor: Nayan Reddy, Svea Schneider
Photo Credits: Bushan Anil Deshmukh

The female identity is a product of century long classifications, definitions and constructs. It has been subjectified and objectified through a range of discourses. Throughout cultural, social and political history the male gaze has created a narrative for the female identity and has defined the female body through dualistic concepts. Archetypes are universal and mythical ideas inscribed on the female identity, ideas of identity that reside in the female body that have been injected into our consciousness by the male gaze. “On her Own” is a six stage moving dance performance that takes the audience on a journey to explore female identity and witness the creation, confinement, shedding and eventual death of four universal archetypes prescribed on the female body. The performance moves through six different areas of the building, each time exploring a different realm of the codification, categorization and impact of confinement given to women throughout cultural, social and political history. Through a synthesis of choreographed movement, improvisation, sound, paint, diverse props and other artistic elements, “On her Own” rewrites the female body by placing the woman as the protagonist in creating her own identity and shedding male made conceptions of her.
— Performed at: Hotel Shalimar/TIFA, Pune/India.

Generously supported by The Good Artists of Pune, TIFA & the Goethe Institute Delhi

Photo Credit: Bushan Anil Deshmukh