Nün Gherāo: Surrounded by Salt
World Premiere: september 30, 2022, The O’Shaughnessy at St. Catherine University (St. Paul, MN).
TOURING: JACOB’S PILLOW, HENRY J. LEIR STAGE (BECKET, MA)
Nün Gherāo uses a 1978-79 massacre on the Marichjhapi Island in West Bengal, India, as its point of departure to explore betrayal, dispossession, and exile, and the desperate global resistance against great odds that fuels hope and survival. This work becomes activated through shared breath and rhythms, practices of mourning, overlapping time cycles, ritualized movement, dances of fire and of personal connection that tag different sites of memory through meditations on dancing in salt water, where one’s tears meet the rising and warming oceans of our world.
Running Time: 75 minutes, without intermission
Concept & Choreography
Ananya Chatterjea
STAGE DIRECTOR
Marcus Young
Scenic design
Chelsea
composer/sound designer/instrumentalist/vocalist
Spirit McIntyre
Lighting Design
Kevin A. Jones
costume design
Annie Cady
BOLS (SYLLABIC ACCOMPANIMENT) CREATED AND RECITED BY
Ananya Chatterjea
Film, media design
Darren Johnson
performers
Noelle Awadallah
Lizzette Chapa
Ananya Chatterjea
Alexis Araminta Reneé
Alexandra Eady
Kealoha Ferreira
Spirit McIntyre
Parisha Rajbhandari
Laichee Yang
(See “resources” below for full playbill)