Shakti

Shakti – a dancer from Australia writes about her life and her work….

Dance is all about life and nature and how you can be one with it. I listen to my
inner self and the world around me which tells me all its secrets. My dance is a
communication and conversation with what surrounds me. It whispers to me and I reply
with my movements and body. Whether it be on stage or out in the middle of nowhere
the essence is the same. The energy is there.

Through my dance I try to communicate this energy. The energy is raw and wild. It
cannot be suppressed or contained. By letting it go free you can play with it, make
love to it, fight with it. But the discipline of yoga is that the energy doesn’t
control you and overwhelm you. And also you don’t want to control it but you want
to channel it so it goes free into the right direction.

I’ve been dancing since I was 3. Well, probably started in my mother’s stomach.
She is a dancer too. My mother taught me dance (Indian dance) and my father taught
me yoga and philosophy. The combination made me what I am. Through my body I wish
to communicate the yoga energy and the philosophy I believe in.

Every piece relates back to that. Yes, but I am a firm believer in discipline. Nature
has its rules and so do we. We listen, we negotiate and we work together to push
the limits and to reach far beyond to the unknown.

My yoga discipline is kundalini tantra yoga. We breathe from the inside – from the
lower abdomen – the centre of the body. It is like a black hole that sucks in all
the light and releases it from far within in the total darkness. The energy flows
and the dance begins. And I loose myself in it. And by loosing myself I find I am
100% aware of everything. It is like the burning flame. In order to burn bright,
the centre must be cold and blue, otherwise you burn out.

I shall be dancing “The Woman in the Dunes” in the Adelaide Fringe. It is a surrealistic
existential story of survival, love & death taking place in the sand dunes of our
subconscious minds. The shifting sands of time make you realize how things keeping
changing. Nothing is eternal except time. The dance takes place in a fleeting moment
of eternity within yourself.

Original music composed by Steven Severin. (ex- Siouxie and the Banshees)

• Prelude – the Dawning
• Existence – dance of Sisyphus
• Entrapment – dance of Fear
• Eros – dance of Love
• Enchantment – the Spell
• Ecstacy – dance of Liberation
• Epilogue – the shifing sands of time

But before that I am off to the outback. Very soon! This is where I recharge all
my batteries and prepare myself for my busy year of performances. Jorg (my husband)
and I go out in the Flinders Ranges and to the Pilbara where it is 40 degrees and
just stunning. Every waterhole is to swim in, every mountain is to climb, every
gorge is to climb down to. The only thing to wear is a bit of sunscreen.

Last time I danced in Lake Ballard with the Gormley sculptures and in Millstream,
Bilung, Kennedy Ranges- Honeycomb Gorge and Wittenoon. What will I find this year?

Visit Shakti’s website