Body, the Shrine (2018)
Ragamala
Aparna Ramaswarmy

In Body, the Shrine, choreography, mythography, and Bhakti poetry entwine to connect the spiritual, the immediate, the intimate, and the transcendent. ‘Bhakti’ is a Sanskrit term meaning both ‘devotion’ and ‘participation.’ The Bhakti poets erased any dichotomy between the sacred and the personal, seamlessly interweaving the two to express deep longing, anguish of separation, ecstasy, and the desire to reach salvation/transcendence. Body the Shrine excavates the visceral wisdom of this poetic tradition—a tradition that strikes a chord across time and geography—to explore the sacred sanctuary that exists within each of us.