Tishani Doshi Dancer and Poet

Tishani Doshi’s tribute to Chandralekha. I saw Tishani Doshi dance in Delhi a few years ago, and she was amazing, it seemed like she was creating dance through Yoga.

In a sense, Chandra's work wasn't concerned with dance at all. It was a lifelong quest to know the body: to decipher its many beginnings and endings, to conceptualize the body in terms of space and time, to recognise the body as a source of unlimited energy and to nurture it as a medium to connect with nature, society, the cosmos.

It was only through this understanding of body that she believed we could understand the business of living and reconcile the tensions between tradition and modernity, inner and outer. It was through the body that she chose to find a new vocabulary for expression in our times.

I am trying to get a copy of her new book of poetry, she seems like a strong poet. Here is a review of her book Countries of the Body.

"I forgot how Madras loves noise
Loves neighbours and pregnant women
And Gods and babies....

....How cars in reverse sing Jingle Bells
And scooters have larynxes of lorries.
How even colour can never be quiet."