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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Mehek - Aakash Odedra & Aditi Mangaldas

Aakash Odedra & Aditi Mangaldas in Mehek.

Feb 7–8, 2024
NYU Abu Dhabi C3 Arts Center - Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Hwy - Al Saadiyat Island - Saadiyat Marina District - Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates

Even when men dominated traditional Indian dance forms such as bharatanatyam and kathak, they spoke the same feminine language as the women: the darting eyes, eloquent wrists, tendriled arms, and finely jingling feet. No one achieves this hermaphroditic splendor like the young feline Indian-British dancer-choreographer Aakash Odedra. But for his latest creation (sponsored by the ubiquitous and discerning Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels), he is teaming up with an actual woman, veteran kathak soloist Aditi Mangaldas. Mehek (Fragrance) is a love story, though not between seductive Hindu gods and their long-suffering consorts, as is usual, but between artistic generations. While Odedra’s fusion of contemporary and traditional, Western and South Asian, can create a haze over the drama, Mangaldas’s participation should keep the language crisp. —Apollinaire Scherr

Photo: Angela Grabowska