0:02

[Music]

0:13

>>Rohan: Hi my name is Rohan Dhupar and 
you’re watching MAD.

0:16

[Transition Music]

0:23

Trying to teach the choreography to the 
company was really challenging for sure.

0:26

It was a two and a half week process of

0:29

developing the choreography
and teaching it and rehearsing it online.

0:32

We did have a couple days where we got
to meet up in a park

0:35

and do some socially distant,  
mask on rehearsing

0:38

which was really really useful to get a
sense of you know how does it actually  

0:42

work with all the bodies in space at the 
same time.

0:45

The um wrist shop song is one

0:47

that was really interesting to us, as Frog in Hand, 

0:50

because Frog in Hand is a dance theater company.

0:52

So while we do a lot of contemporary
dance and just like regular choreography

0:57

uh that one was interesting
because we got to make it more of a

1:00

 of a theater piece as well with more  
acting, more character work in there.  

1:04

Um so Caitlyn Sabled
was our choreographer for that one and  

1:08

she really walked us through a lot of
character beats and intentions, and

1:12

really focused more on making it

1:14

more like a scene or a mini play 
as opposed to a dance.

1:17

Chammak Challo was really just straight
up a dance number, it was a lot of fun.

1:21

Another company member, Mckenna, she  
choreographed that one

1:24

and she has a strong hip-hop background 

1:27

so we got to draw on her experience doing that.

1:29

And then for Badtameez Fever that one was really 

1:32

playing back and forth with the Bollywood
song and the disco song

1:36

and finding that you know,
or having a good time in both worlds  

1:39

but they’re a little bit different.

1:41

Um and the inspiration came
from you know finding a way to

1:44

celebrate both versions together.

1:48

Finding a way to
navigate the South Asian cultural

1:52

implications of Bollywood along with the
other styles we were using

1:55

was something that we were having a lot
of conversations about as a company.

1:58

Especially because I’m the only South
Asian member of the company.

2:02

I do personally have um 
a lengthy Bollywood training background  

2:07

but not everyone else did so we did a lot of

2:11

research and a lot of discussion.
We watched a lot of videos  

2:13

just so that we understood what some of those 

2:17

cultural and traditional derivatives of the
style of Bollywood are

2:21

and where they come from.

2:23

And then we just basically wanted to 
incorporate that

2:26

and treat it as a regular 
Frog in Hand dance theater process.

2:30

So it was more along the lines of
we’re incorporating

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a cultural celebration of the South Asian  

2:36

implications of Bollywood into what Frog in Hand’s 

2:39

theater making practices already are.

2:41

And then, of course, everyone not having 
done Bollywood before,

2:44

we started off our process with just learning  

2:48

a few counts of eight of

2:50

strictly Bollywood movement and really
fine-tuning different details within that.

2:54

Like with the hands, with the looks,
with the heads, um

2:57

just so that everyone had that already  
introduced into their body

3:00

before we started teaching
each piece individually.

3:04

[Music]

4:01

>>Jessica: We started rehearsing um

4:04

maybe about five weeks.

4:05

We filmed on Zoom for many many days and

4:09

it was it was interesting at first trying 
to mirror choreography

4:12

and like trying to figure out like which 
side your body moves and

4:17

it’s like sometimes the music would be 
out of sync because of the lag from Zoom.

4:20

So there were a few like
technological challenges there  

4:24

but the amazing thing about Zoom is that, 
as we’re doing right now, we’re recording  

4:29

so what we would do is we would
record every uh

4:31

rehearsal and we would post it like

4:34

on Google Drive where all of the company 
members were able to

4:38

look back and review in their own time.

4:40

And then we had like the few
socially distanced, in-person rehearsals  

4:45

um which kind of helped with the spacing

4:48

and kind of finalize everything
together so that was really nice.

4:53

>>Rohan: You know in the end it was 
it was great

4:55

and when we arrived we just had to
make a few adjustments

4:57

but of course, yeah, what are artists
if not resilient, especially in this time.  

5:02

I’ve been in contact with,

5:04

calling throughout,
a lot of the back and forth over the past

5:07

um year or so with uh trying to get a 
collaboration going with MonstrARTity.  

5:12

So it’s been really lovely to feel that

5:15

um desire to have us 
involved

5:19

which was very exciting for it to finally come…come to fruition.

5:23

Logistically everything ran so smoothly
from like the communication to

5:27

um the uh discussion about what needed  
to happen creatively.

5:33

On top of that, just like I love the sense 
of community

5:36

that MonstrARTity fosters within
not just like the local arts community,  

5:40

but also focusing on

5:42

providing a platform for South Asian
artists as well and to

5:45

invite other artists who don’t necessarily 
identify within that culture

5:49

 to um lend their voices in that aspect.

5:54

[Music]

6:19

>>Rohan: This festival was 
good for me because it

6:23

opened my eyes to the infinite  
possibilities of being an artist

6:27

in this local community,
within South Asian culture.  

6:30

I had a really great time watching the live
stream on the Facebook page.

6:34

Like seeing people who fall within 
more traditional Indian dance forms

6:40

and then seeing some people who work
more within fusion  

6:42

like with heels or hip hop and waacking.

6:45

It was just like wonderful, so much fun.
I was watching it with my family at home

6:49

and um just everything was so different,
and everything was really well paced  

6:54

in terms of, like you know, I was engaged
the entire time

6:57

even though it was on this digital platform.

6:59

The thing with digital performance is 
that

7:01

there’s a sense of permanence with it

7:03

whereas when it’s live you do it, then 
it’s done and no one really sees it again.  

7:07

So it’s nice that

7:09

it’s out there and it
was received with that much positivity.

7:14

[Music]

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