Zawn Lai
ZAWN LAI unfolds as a durational site-specific work comprising two short works, Folk It! And
Zawng-Lai. The performances are tied together by a connection to Mizo folktales in a live
compositional exploration that recalls stories vaguely present in the far recess of the
collective memory. Dancers and musicians layer a series of patterns, and embark on a journey that reflect the relationship between fiction and reality, memory and the
present, folklore and history, giving rise to new meaning and experiences with each iteration–
much like how folk stories evolve with each new telling. The work challenges the notion of “folk” as a fixed cultural artifact, proposing instead that it is a living, ever-changing collective memory that weaves through time and space.
Choreography
Performers
Music
Sound Design
Lighting Design
Costume Design
Reserach and Contributors
Supported By
Joshua Sailo
Dayita Nereyeth, Abhaydev Praful,
Swami Aribam and Joshua Sailo
Abhaydev Praful, Tetea Vanchhawng
Heisnam Shantanu,
Bharavi
Chingrimi Shimray
Apurva Arthur, Sachin Gurjale, Hari Haran, Pritha Mahanti, Gayatri Shetty, Lalchhandami, and Jaydee
The Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitions (THF), Foundation for Indian Contemporary Arts (FICA), Royal Enfield Social Mission, with contributions by artists and frineds of Codabloo
Research and methodology
The performance was devised from a year-long research Project Simei Khu, undertaken by Joshua and various collaborators and contributors through The Himalayan Fellowship for Creative Practitioners (2024), supported by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art.
Project Simei Khu– Mizo word for a comet, a flash– draws a poetic parallel to the fleeting nature of a performed dance, unfolding in layered movement patterns and methodologies to create new frameworks for dance making and storytelling that dialogues with tradition and contemporary methods. Inspired by Mizo folktales, and in response to a collective amnesia that is endemic Joshua’s indigenous homeland in Northeast India, project Simei Khu straddles multiple forms of transmission, spanning the individual and the communal, original and replicated, authored and authorless in hopes of emulating and safeguarding oral traditions.
This is reflected in the resulting movement systems that can be used as movement generation and compositional structures that give agency to each dancer and participating artists to play, react, and respond to one other in real time.