PETTEE: storybox

‘Pettee’ is a word with multiple meanings in the languages of millions of people (Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi) but one is instantly recognised: container, and by extension box, briefcase, casket, coffin … It is a word with weight for the rootless or the displaced. In this show, presented with Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, dancers and fabricated landscape lead the audience into an immersive world of movement and music and flight, where bodies unbend, lunge and soar, to unseal and unpack years of youth, where multiple futures, each magical, seemed possible.

Plotting to make that dream of weightlessness real are writers Deepak Unnikrishnan and Karthika Naïr, composer Sarathy Korwar and his musicians, set and lighting designer Willy Cessa, illustrator Appupen (George Mathen), rigger Simon Nyiringabo, and three choreographers/performers – Wanjiru Kamuyuyu, Saju Hari, Ali Ben Lotfi Thabet.

Deepak Unnikrishnan is a writer from Abu Dhabi. His book Temporary People, a novel about Gulf narratives steeped in Malayalee and South Asian lingo, has won several awards.

The performance is followed by a Q&A with the artists. There will be a second performance on 19 April, though without the Q&A …