Mehek, Sadler’s Wells: A fusion of Kathak with contemporary dance

In Mehek the first thing that strikes you is how the dancers’ movement is led by the hands. Allow me to give you a quick primer: in classical western ballet, the impetus to the dancer’s body is given by the legs, which generate most of the power and carry the upper body with them. In contemporary dance the impetus is given chiefly by the torso, initiating arches and other shapes, which legs and leaps will then complete. In tap dance you can see a leading muscle in the calf, imparting energy that travels to heels and toes first and then upwards to the neck.

In classical Indian Kathak dance you follow a story by following a dancer’s hands: they are where the emotions are expressed and where the body’s shapes start. Next are the feet, always naked, and whose movement is often highlighted by anklets of tiny brass bells, the traditional Kathak ghungroo bells. The torso is usually straight.

In fusing Kathak with contemporary dance you unleash immense body power and narrative force in a single expression that few other dance forms can match. Watching Mehek, a labour of love by two masters of both genres and the outcome of this fusion, is a privilege and a thrill.

Mehek is a dance duet about a taboo subject: the love between a mature woman and a younger man. Not an anklet or bell in sight, dressed in flowing silk and performing rotations at great speed, the pair go through the stages of all love stories until taboo and gossip enters their life, seeding doubt, awareness of aging, self-consciousness, and outside judgment, pushing the lovers apart. The emotions are powerful, and the overall effect of lighting, music, reflections from broken mirrors and bodies in motion is extraordinary.

Moments of great tenderness will remain with you: when a distressed Aditi watches her own aging face in a mirror, Aakash puts himself between her and the mirror, inviting her to see herself through his adoring gaze instead. Sleeping under the stars, then dancing among shards of mirrors swinging between them tell the two opposite feelings of bliss and danger.

Aakash Odedra is a Leicester-based dancer and choreographer who trained purely in this ancient form of dance for twenty years before absorbing the language of contemporary dance into his work. Aakash has produced several original choreographies and was recognised by the late Queen in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to dance. Aditi Mangaldas, a leading dancer and choreographer based in Delhi, made the same journey, basing her contemporary dance on traditional Kathak, only a generation earlier.

The two had not worked together before, despite their parallel artistic calling, and Aditi does not often perform in the UK. Forbidden, her previous London solo show, co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells Theatre and the Mumbai National Centre for The Performing Arts, was a rarity.