The Body Remembers The Mountain (BRM) Project
The Body Remembers The Mountain (BRM) Project
The Body Remembers The Mountain (BRM) Project
The BRM Project asks: What might it mean to remember the Mountain with our moving bodies, with our thinking, with our sensing, and with our imaginings? What might it mean for our communities and for the well-being of the Earth in this place? As we move toward the Mountain, the Mountain also approaches us, connecting us through pathways of resonance and storytelling to the stories of mountains across India and the US.
The BRM Project asks: What might it mean to remember the Mountain with our moving bodies, with our thinking, with our sensing, and with our imaginings? What might it mean for our communities and for the well-being of the Earth in this place? As we move toward the Mountain, the Mountain also approaches us, connecting us through pathways of resonance and storytelling to the stories of mountains across India and the US.
Towards a Different Earth (TDE):
An Accessible Eco-Theatres Arts Residency 2024
Towards a Different Earth (TDE):
An Accessible Eco-Theatres Arts Residency 2024
Towards a Different Earth (TDE), a collaboration on an Accessible Eco-Theatres Arts Residency, will connect college youth, Deaf/Hard-of-hearing and Blind/VI communities, service providers for Indian Sign Language (ISL) and Audio Description, and theatre practitioners in Thrissur, India, with experts in Accessible Theatres. TDE involves the co-development of a performance methodology for engaging a diverse, mixed ability community with Kerala and US stories on mountains and climate change. Capacity-building through webinars, workshops, and a performance mini-series with a final public showing will enable us to develop a “how-to” documentary film-short on Accessible Eco-Theatres for distribution across Indian and US audiences.
This project is a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund grant, part of Exchange Alumni & Global Ties US funding.
Towards a Different Earth (TDE), a collaboration on an Accessible Eco-Theatres Arts Residency, will connect college youth, Deaf/Hard-of-hearing and Blind/VI communities, service providers for Indian Sign Language (ISL) and Audio Description, and theatre practitioners in Thrissur, India, with experts in Accessible Theatres. TDE involves the co-development of a performance methodology for engaging a diverse, mixed ability community with Kerala and US stories on mountains and climate change. Capacity-building through webinars, workshops, and a performance mini-series with a final public showing will enable us to develop a “how-to” documentary film-short on Accessible Eco-Theatres for distribution across Indian and US audiences.
This project is a Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund grant, part of Exchange Alumni & Global Ties US funding.
BRM Project 2023
BRM Project 2023
The BRM Project 2023 is an archival, ethnographical, and critical performance study of Kailasodharanham (Lifting Mount Kailash) that examines how the performing body of Kutiyattam engages with the questions of eco-aesthetics. This research, which included a study of Kerala stories about mountains and their communities, resulted In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains a live/virtual intercultural bi-lingual theatre work on mountains and climate change and the first ever Accessible Theatre Production for live theatre work in Kerala, with interpretation in Indian Sign Language and audio description in Malayalam. This project formed part of Dr. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren’s Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar Research (April- December 2023)
The BRM Project 2023 is an archival, ethnographical, and critical performance study of Kailasodharanham (Lifting Mount Kailash) that examines how the performing body of Kutiyattam engages with the questions of eco-aesthetics. This research, which included a study of Kerala stories about mountains and their communities, resulted In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains a live/virtual intercultural bi-lingual theatre work on mountains and climate change and the first ever Accessible Theatre Production for live theatre work in Kerala, with interpretation in Indian Sign Language and audio description in Malayalam. This project formed part of Dr. Kanta Kochhar-Lindgren’s Fulbright-Nehru Senior Scholar Research (April- December 2023)
Ongoing BRM Projects
Ongoing BRM Projects
The BRM project—as a theatrical performance, scholarship, and a series
of workshops—examines Mt Rainier and others as focal and inclusive sites for sacred storytelling, art-making, and ecological reimaginings of our relations to the earth.
The BRM project—as a theatrical performance, scholarship, and a series
of workshops—examines Mt Rainier and others as focal and inclusive sites for sacred storytelling, art-making, and ecological reimaginings of our relations to the earth.
BRM Project
TDE Project
BRM Project 2023 Video Highlights
*Image Description : A deer shadow puppet blended into the mountain landscape of an evening.
Rhythmic Stories of Palakkad
The rhythm of their bodies synchronizes with the rhythm of the environments: the weaver's body syncs in with the loom. In many such rhythms lies numerous stories for the people of Palakkad to tell and recite through their songs. Those stories have been lingering in the air for a long time, waiting to gain their shapes when the daylight falls and night light comes. Their songs continue to be carried through the winds of this place.
Watch Video
*Image Description : A snapshot of Maari Theyyams performing among the villagers.
As Reds and Greens Spilled
The bodies become adorned with more green, and the rustling sound of people gathering around gradually intensifies before the song of the gods commences and the Maari Theyyam enters into its dance trance. As the drum beats intensify and the song gets repeated over, the greens and reds of their bodies slowly dissipate through their movements. They gradually blend into the people and the surrounding landscape.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Instrument-making craftsman using his whole body to tie the ropes on the body of a drum.
Drums of Peruvemba
The creation of an ecosystem of art forms comes from varied contributions, including that of a place, a community, and the natural environment. A part of that whole comes from the instrument-making people of Peruvemba, Palakkad. Behind the musical sounds we experience are images of spaces with raw materials like animal skin, ropes, wood, stones, and ashes of leaves. In these spaces, bodies have been engaged in working with the toughness of such materials for years, contributing to musical journeys.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Image of built spaces through the interstices of which a backdrop of mountains is revealed.
Lost Spaces
What stories do these lost spaces have to say? From the presence to the absence of people in these spaces, will memories survive or will they be ghosted with only the humming of its surrounds remaining?
Watch Video
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains is an experimental and inter-cultural performance about the beauty and fragility of our mountains while shedding light on the pressing challenges of climate change.
Read More
BRM Project
TDE Project
BRM Project 2023 Video Highlights
*Image Description : A deer shadow puppet blended into the mountain landscape of an evening.
Rhythmic Stories of Palakkad
The rhythm of their bodies synchronizes with the rhythm of the environments: the weaver's body syncs in with the loom. In many such rhythms lies numerous stories for the people of Palakkad to tell and recite through their songs. Those stories have been lingering in the air for a long time, waiting to gain their shapes when the daylight falls and night light comes. Their songs continue to be carried through the winds of this place.
Watch Video
*Image Description : A snapshot of Maari Theyyams performing among the villagers.
As Reds and Greens Spilled
The bodies become adorned with more green, and the rustling sound of people gathering around gradually intensifies before the song of the gods commences and the Maari Theyyam enters into its dance trance. As the drum beats intensify and the song gets repeated over, the greens and reds of their bodies slowly dissipate through their movements. They gradually blend into the people and the surrounding landscape.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Instrument-making craftsman using his whole body to tie the ropes on the body of a drum.
Drums of Peruvemba
The creation of an ecosystem of art forms comes from varied contributions, including that of a place, a community, and the natural environment. A part of that whole comes from the instrument-making people of Peruvemba, Palakkad. Behind the musical sounds we experience are images of spaces with raw materials like animal skin, ropes, wood, stones, and ashes of leaves. In these spaces, bodies have been engaged in working with the toughness of such materials for years, contributing to musical journeys.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Image of built spaces through the interstices of which a backdrop of mountains is revealed.
Lost Spaces
What stories do these lost spaces have to say? From the presence to the absence of people in these spaces, will memories survive or will they be ghosted with only the humming of its surrounds remaining?
Watch Video
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains is an experimental and inter-cultural performance about the beauty and fragility of our mountains while shedding light on the pressing challenges of climate change.
Read More
BRM Project
TDE Project
BRM Project 2023 Video Highlights
*Image Description : A deer shadow puppet blended into the mountain landscape of an evening.
Rhythmic Stories of Palakkad
The rhythm of their bodies synchronizes with the rhythm of the environments: the weaver's body syncs in with the loom. In many such rhythms lies numerous stories for the people of Palakkad to tell and recite through their songs. Those stories have been lingering in the air for a long time, waiting to gain their shapes when the daylight falls and night light comes. Their songs continue to be carried through the winds of this place.
Watch Video
*Image Description : A snapshot of Maari Theyyams performing among the villagers.
As Reds and Greens Spilled
The bodies become adorned with more green, and the rustling sound of people gathering around gradually intensifies before the song of the gods commences and the Maari Theyyam enters into its dance trance. As the drum beats intensify and the song gets repeated over, the greens and reds of their bodies slowly dissipate through their movements. They gradually blend into the people and the surrounding landscape.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Instrument-making craftsman using his whole body to tie the ropes on the body of a drum.
Drums of Peruvemba
The creation of an ecosystem of art forms comes from varied contributions, including that of a place, a community, and the natural environment. A part of that whole comes from the instrument-making people of Peruvemba, Palakkad. Behind the musical sounds we experience are images of spaces with raw materials like animal skin, ropes, wood, stones, and ashes of leaves. In these spaces, bodies have been engaged in working with the toughness of such materials for years, contributing to musical journeys.
Watch Video
*Image Description : Image of built spaces through the interstices of which a backdrop of mountains is revealed.
Lost Spaces
What stories do these lost spaces have to say? From the presence to the absence of people in these spaces, will memories survive or will they be ghosted with only the humming of its surrounds remaining?
Watch Video
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains
In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains is an experimental and inter-cultural performance about the beauty and fragility of our mountains while shedding light on the pressing challenges of climate change.
Read More
