Trafalgar Square Festival

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About Trafalgar Square Festival

Trafalgar Square Festival is currently in its sixth year and this year’s Festival programme sets out to express London’s creative connections with India through new collaborations and pioneering outdoor commissions from London based and Indian companies.
Highlights of the festival include:

* 'Dreaming Now', an entrancing dance extravaganza combining ballet with Bharat Natyam from Akademi South Asian Dance UK
* 'Shiva Dance', a poetic and newly commissioned aerial dance piece directed by Vena Ramphal evoking the sacred Chola bronze sculptures of Southern India
* a stunning collaboration between leading installation artist Naresh Kapuria, working with London-based Kathak dancers and the Belgian Theater Tol featuring hundreds of Indian bells and entrancing performers suspended from a crane
* a new outdoor performance from Tara Arts, who will create a powerful theatrical ritual celebrating the relationship between London and Delhi
* a major new commission from the Bangalore-based Attakkalari Centre evoking the sights and sounds of Indian streets.

Trafalgar Square Festival Timetable
Week 1: 2 - 9 August

Thursday 2 August
6pm Shiva Dance (15 minutes)
Vena Ramphal who created “Londoner” for the Trafalgar Square Festival in 2005 will present an exciting new performance combining contemporary Bharatanatyam with circus, inspired by sacred geometry and evoking the Chola bronzes of Southern India.
6.25pm Londonindia (30 minutes)
This exuberant, high-energy, circus-based spectacular will combine aerial performance on a giant dome rig, Bollywood dance and special effects.

Friday 3 August
8pm, Shiva Dance (15 minutes)
Please see above description
8.25pm, Londonindia (30 minutes)
Please see above description
9.05pm, Dreaming Now (30 minutes)
A startling new production from Akademi, a visually ravishing exploration of dance styles juxtaposing the lyricism of kathak and ballet with the spirited dynamics of bharatanatyam, contemporary dance and circus, delivering a vision of Trafalgar Square where youth, tradition and innovation collide.

Saturday 4 August
3pm, Shiva Dance (15 minutes)
Please see above description
3.25pm, 3KON (40 minutes)
Nritarutya creates spectacular performances drawing on the diverse physical techniques of Indian classical dance and martial arts to provide resonant and sensory experiences that entertain and challenge.
4.05pm Dreaming Now (30 minutes)
Please see above description

Sunday 5 August
3pm, Shiva Dance (15 minutes)
Please see above description
3.25pm, 3KON (40 minutes)
Please see above description
4.05pm Dreaming Now (30 minutes)
Please see above description
Week 2: 9– 12 August

Thursday 9 August
6pm, Nagarantharan (25 minutes)
The internationally acclaimed, Bangalore based Attakkalari Centre will evoke the sights and sounds of the streets of India in an exciting new site specific performance featuring amongst other things choreographed motor scooters!
6.40pm JUGGERNAUT - Tara-in-the-Sky! (20 minutes)
Tara Arts creates a powerful theatrical ritual about the relationship between India and Britain. Inspired by the deity that feeds modern cities, Tara's spectacle of dance and music literally soars into the sky above Trafalgar Square in a riot of colour.

Friday 10 August
8pm, Nagarantharan (25 minutes)
Please see above description
9pm, Bells (40 minutes)
This breathtaking collaborative spectacle features one of India’s leading artists Naresh Kapuria, whose exquisite installations are created from hundreds of tiny bells. These bells will be echoed by the anklets worn by Akademi’s kathak dancers in dynamic choreography across Trafalgar Square before a vision overhead from Theater Tol creates a triumphant climax.

Saturday 11 August

3pm, Quick! (15 minutes)
Nina Rajarani presents a new outdoor version of her acclaimed evocation of the hurly burly of the corporate business world with fast paced Bharatanatyam choreography and dynamic integration of dancers and musicians.
3.30pm Nagarantharan (25 minutes)
Please see above description
4.20pm JUGGERNAUT - Tara-in-the-Sky! (20 minutes)
Please see above description

Sunday 12 August
3pm, Quick! (15 minutes)
Please see above description
3.30pm Nagarantharan (25 minutes)
Please see above description
4.20pm JUGGERNAUT - Tara-in-the-Sky! (20 minutes)
Please see above description
Week 3: 16– 19 August

Namastay Trafalgar Square (2hrs)
In the final week of the Festival, a specially commissioned Bollywood spectacle will see a giant canvas painted live by Mumbai poster painters at the foot of Nelson’s column. In an exciting collaboration between London-based choreographer Joan Pires, composer Niraj Chag and the French aerial company Les Passagers, a spectacular vertical Bollywood dance extravaganza will be played out each day against the background of this evolving and vividly painted giant poster. Also featuring DJ Ritu and the Sapnay School of Dance.

Performances take place on:

* Thursday 16 August, 6-8pm
* Friday 17 August, 8-10pm
* Saturday 18 August, 3-5pm
* Sunday 19 August, 3-5pm