Amidst the sights and sounds of a bustling intersection in Delhi, a sky-blue board for Infinite Artiste invites dreamers and gazers to pause. Its tall windows, clean and bare, too intriguing to ignore. Passersby who follow their curiosity up two flights of stairs, find an oasis of light wooden floors, beige curtains and of course, the huge windows selectively draped in carefully placed white blinds. The daily sounds from down below, become white noise; they do little to disrupt the surreal ease that exists here. Once inside the studio, time ceases to exist as we know it and so does space. We are floating in a continuum, somewhere in the universe… and questions like where exactly, and for how long, fall away and a craving for certainty quickly gets replaced with the much needed relaxation of immersion. There is a complete absence of the usual frenzy associated with dance studios – loud music, sweating bodies, and a teacher passionately calling out counts; instead, there is solitude, quiet moments of laughter, flowing movement, and deep reflections. Bodies exist as they need. Some are lying on the floor, while others sit in perpendicularity and some others are engaged in varied stretches – all while interacting with their mentor. I instantly feel comfortable and much like I would while reading a book or watching a show at home – I too find myself moving through my body as I spend the hours observing and absorbing.
There is a lot here that exists for eyes made of telescopes and kaleidoscopes. Images keep shifting, as sights keep transforming as art and movement are dreamt into existence. It would require an observer to spend at least day after day for a couple of months to scratch the surface of it. However, the naked eye does undoubtedly catch the way every fibre of being here is devoted to and made up of art. Students go from taking notes, sharing experiences to rehearsing raw material in a matter of seconds. So in tune, so in the zone…
They are shapeshifters, almost magical beings, not being trained to merely dance… Instead, being brought up as people, personalities born from art. It’s no less than magic. A fantasy world not exiled to figments of imagination or wishful thinking but a fantasy that is an everyday reality. They are mastering a zone of constant creation; they are soaked in ‘neutral and non-linear.’ They’re nurturing how to have a steady and creative spine, be at ease, be regulated while continuously challenging and playing with the boundaries of what is considered typical, normal and finite. As Infinite Artistes, they are learning to be fluent in the practice of Merging. A higher plane philosophy of letting go of segregation & division, to instead collect and integrate the multiple, diverse facets of life and self into a continuous and grand sense of being.
As I write this, three dancers move to the rhythm of silence. It almost feels and looks like a trance, perhaps it is a cosmic surrender to a universe within, where planets twirl in their orbit and blackholes become rabbit holes of wonder, leading to a universe looped into another… an entire galaxy of possibilities. I’m reminded of the Sufi ‘sama’: a form of ecstatical, melodic and dancing prayers.
As I’m transported to a space of whirling, meditation and the rhythm of bodies moving through space, there is little doubt. These are people who love movement, and who are becoming creative from their core. Their clear, sincere and unfailingly mindful eyes reveal the quality and intensity of what can only be described as a spiritual connection to themselves. As they continue to create and melt under the watchful, artistic & seeing further eyes of their mentor, I know I’m in the midst of something special.
A dancer, encumbered by a typical thinking world, I look around and let myself dare to imagine what life might have looked like had I continued to live with dance for oxygen. Would I have been here, free in my body, even freer in my mind – able to wholeheartedly inhabit movement? Would I have been able to dance, wherever, whenever I wanted to?
It’s bittersweet, as it always is, to dream of alternate lives, lives that could’ve been but never became. Although, I now have Ragini, who would remind me dreams can become reality in minutes, alternate lives can become lived ones… that I can do all I want to… that limits are mere illusions. It is this belief in the potential of potential itself, that lifts Infinite Artiste beyond the stratosphere into a higher plane. It is this belief that transforms the meaning, sense of purpose & belonging inherent in art, from the intangible to the tangible.
To step into this space is to leave with the crinkle and sprinkle of magic sinking into the fabric of your skin.
— Soniksha
Ragini Bhajanka 