There is a World Sand Ceremony in the Thamarai garden in Edyanchavadi! to bless traveling sand, mixed by children in over 35 countries. Please join TLC where children will offer performances and presentations. There will be various stalls to discover, and delicious treats made by the children. Kalki Subramaniam, gender activist and actor presents 'The Lives of Others', a presentation on the lifestyle and culture of the Hijras-transgenders of India. There is a workshop to explore Nonviolent Communication, the work of Robert Gonzales. Read more

She who Unspins, performed by Ashwini Kaarthikeyan, was presented at Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas. The performance was accompanied with live music by P.T. Narendran (Nattuvangam), G. Srikanth (Vocal), B.P. Haribabu (Mridangam), Easwar Ramakrishnan (Violin), Devaraj (Flute). This performance was a repertoire of purely Bharatanatyam classical recital dance in Tamil, Sanskrit & Telugu with simultaneous projected translations in English. Read more

Body Consciousness in Movement, the two days Contact Improvisation Workshop by Irene Sposetti & Johan Nilsson will start on Saturday 31 of March in the morning 9.00-12.00 and it will continue at the same time on 1 of April at the Dance Studio in New Creation. They will awake openness, receptivity, softness and fluidity in the body movement. They will concentrate on presence and spontaneity, on the capacity to find new ways of moving as they explain in the interview. Open at all level, with live music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED8hNoulZv4 Read more

Last Saturday in SAWCHU in Bharat Nivas, the international children's theatre workshop on Tagore literature took place. Mainly given in Tamil, its purpose was to let the children from the villages around Auroville share knowledge, work together and feel as one. And not just the children, but the teachers and some experts in theatre and education as well. The day, facilitated by Dr. Velu Saravanan, consisted of reciting poems and songs, theatre classes and as finale, a small play performed by the children. Read more

On Saturday the 10th in Amphitheater of Matrimandir was played the performance Adoration for the Mother. It was the inauguration of the starting program of Tantidhatri International Women's Performing Art Festival. The performance with movement, dance, Russian bells, voice and projected images, has realized by Grace, Jyoti, Joy, Kanchana, Liudmila, Manjula, Srimoyi, Terra & Vera. Flowers were the subject of the projections which enfolded all the scene with a magic colored screen. Read more

On 13th at CRIPA Nathalie Mentha performes Per Edith Piaf, with the direction and the technical assistance by Pino Di Buduo, from Teatro Potlach in Italy. This performance is a musical journey in France of the 1930s and 1950s through Edith Piaf's songs - stories of lives in the underworld of the French gangsters, stories of women in love, stories of passion, of dreams, of memories. The theme, the soul which ties all the stories together, and maybe even more Edith Piaf's own soul, seems to be: Whatever happens, don't ever stop believing in love. Read more

As part of the Tantidhatri festival, this play was performed in Cripa last thursday. It is played solely by Julia Varley, an artistic director, writer and above all member of Odin Theatret in Denmark. Written by Eugenio Barba, The Castle of Holstebro is a dialogue between a young woman and her eternal companion following the lines of a "stream of consciousness", set in a phantom castle. Two entirely different characters played by just one person is quite a thing to witness. A moving play filled with music and monologues/dialogues.

Rwita Dutta Chakraborty was born in North Bengal and has always been into creative arts. She has become an actress for television and stage-plays and is now well known in the Bengal theater scene. After a short presentation about her Guru Tripti Mitra, who inspired her in her work, Rwita impressed the audience by her solo performance. She picks up the telephone and starts the play... Listen to the monologue in Bengali. This performance is part of the Tantidhatri International Womens Performance Arts Festival in Auroville. Read more

"Umbral" or Threshold was offered to the audience by Cristina Castrillo at the stage of Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas, at Pavilion of Indian Culture in International Zone. Minimalistic approach of mono play simply tells the story of actress's life, or better glimpses of it, the way she perceived it, sensed it rather than that really was. Without doubt her trace in theater is huge as she dedicated all her efforts to the research of elements which are basic for an actor, who is always at the heart of the inventive process. Read more

Kalaairani was born in Tamil Nadu and is a well known actress. She is part of the Tantidhatri International Womens Performance Arts Festival in Auroville and yesterday she performed in the MMC Auditorium. Kalaairani was telling her familys story and explained the difference between cinema and theater. More than once she made the audience laugh out loud by her funny way of narrating. Maybe it is because of her 'Tanglish', a humorous mixture of English and Tamil, that her acting is so special and hilarious. Read more

A theater and digital media artist from New Zealand, Helen Varley Jamieson gave a presentation of her work - Cyberformance - a unique online theater where artists from remote parts of the world come together online to give live performances. When questioned whether such a performance can be called 'theater' or not, Helen embarked on a research and asked a counter question, 'What is Theater anyway?'. One result of the research is this talk, which, like her medium of performance, is very interactive and led by questions from the curious audience. Read more

Bruna Gusberti started working in the theater at the unusual age of 40. As an actress she did many performances and now since about 10 years, she is assistant director for Cristina Castrillo for all productions of Teatro delle Radici. In this talks she shares her personal discovery of the theater world, her love affair with the art, and her own inner journey from being a teacher and a social worker to becoming a theater performer and then dedicating herself into studying the process of creation of the theatrical pieces. Read more

Cristina Castrillo has dedicated over four decades to professional theater working as an actress, a teacher and a director. This is a superbly inspirational presentation by her where she talks about her exile from her home country and finding a home in her dreams, in what she does, and in the people who love her. In this short but powerful talk, she shares her contemplations on 'How many other kinds of exiles are there?' and 'When does 'nostalgia' become a positive word?' (In Italian, translated on the spot to English by Bruna Gusberti.) Read more

Actress and director from Norway, Geddy Aniksdal, here gives a talk on an unusual kind of theater piece that she started in the small, sleepy, sparsely -populated city of Porsgrunn in Norway to invite more people. It is called the 'Sense of Place' city walks. Residents and tourists participate in a walk across the town and theater actors bring alive certain aspects of the city through their performances in selected spots. It is about creating a 'sense of the place', rather than creating a 'destination city'. Read more

Geddy Aniksdal, member of one of the longest standing free theater groups in Norway, called Grenland Friteater, brought to Auroville her solo performance 'My Life as a Man'. It is, she says, "an autobiographical excursion into the story of my Norwegian working class origins which them became my working class characters." "I like my men, my masculine characters. I feel great freedom in them." Geddy's performance makes one laugh, muse and at times it inspires awe. And when she turns into a man, she makes you forget that in reality, she is Geddy! Read more

Odin Teatret is a theatre company based in Holstebro, Denmark. Founded by Italian theatre director Eugenio Barba in 1964, the first company of actors was a group of young artists who failed to gain admission to the Oslo State Theatre School. On Monday, Julia Varley, a member of Odin's company of actors, gave a compelling presentation on the actresses of the Odin Teatret's company. Throughout the hour, Julia spoke to the strength, exploration, and some of the work that she and her fellow actresses have been engaging in for over 20 years. Read more

Theater scholar and professor and actress, Roxana Pineda, from Cuba played a number of roles to weave her solo performance of Piel Des Violetas. It is inspired by Ophelia, one of William Shakespeare's most famous characters, and expresses a flow of consciousness, almost like a meditation. Roxana's performance was powerful and intense and certainly not to be missed. We hope to give you a flavor of Piel Des Violetas through this audio recording. Read more

As part of the Invocation of Bulgarian Pavilion, six actors of the Overground Arts Alliance with Stojan Radev shared with us the story of constant struggle of the modern urban "slave" who makes a choice on his evolutionary journey. Homo Novus starts on the path of darkness and destruction which slowly, trough modality of consciousness, embarks on a path of light and transformation. He understands that one cannot avoid darkness and destruction. At last, with the interaction of audience, his journey merges with the universal flow, finds harmony Read more

Shri Ajoy Bagchi, member of the Governing Board passed away on 5th March 2012 in New Delhi. A silent concentration in memory and honour of Mr Ajoy Bagchi will be held today at 5pm at the Pavilion of Tibetan Culture in International Zone. Today we feature interview with Aster Patel on the new appointment of Shri Bala Bhaskar as secretary of Auroville Foundation. Ulrike from LEC shares with us news on two talks of dr. Shanu (Communication skills at the bed side) and dr. Anand (Introduction to psychiatry). Tantidhatri women arts festival starts. Read more

For two days we will have a grace to been in the company of the theater that puts the audience on center stage - Shadow Liberation. Evan Hastings, artistic director and four actors, students of Srishti School of of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore shared with us some thoughts on oppression toward gender. With the interactive play they would like to bring awareness on issues of violence, and find out how can social media be used to leverage dialog on the topic, which according to United Nations did overgrown to epidemic proportions. Read more

On Sunday 26th at 19:30 in Auditorium of Bharat Nivas, Savitri Maya and Grace Gitadelila performed in the show "Nirantara Samarpanam". The performance is about the story of the Kolam through dance and multimedia with rhythmic music and Mantra. During the dance a video was projected on a huge screen. The sound Cymatic film projection was by Danny Becher. Sasikanth Somu provided Multimedia/ Videography. Costumes, light and set design by Grace Gitadelila with help of Sasikanth Somu and Jean Legrand. Read more

On Saturday 25th at 8pm in Dance Hall of Pitanga Cultural Centre, Jean Larroquette has read out some Classical French texts of Moliere, Racine and La Fountaine. A beautiful trip about the French language in XVII century which, in around other two centuries, has developed in the modern french language. In the reading Jean has crossed La Fountaine's tails, as "Le Rat et l'Elephant", or the "Andromaque" of Racine, to "L'Avare" from Moliere. The reading was done in French. Read more

Hear an excerpt of an interview with Aurevan on the coming Tango Festival in Auroville; hear it in its entirety in the coming week. Bulgaria, Land as a Single Human Palm; a multimedia event 5 pm March 6 Unity Pavilion. Interactive Theatre by New Yorker Evan Hastings Tuesday March 6 at 7:30pm, Sri Aurobindo Auditorium. International Women’s Day Celebration: Empowering Women around the World: March 8th, 5 pm Pavillion of Tibetan Culture. Georges Van Vrekhem talk: 'True philosophy: the Philosopher and the Yogi' 3 March at 5pm Savitri Bhavan. Read more

No surprise that the performance at Arka starring Heather Lee and Kim Cunio for the second time was absolutely magnificent. Kim began by divulging the extraordinary life of Hildegard of Bingen which surprisingly exposed the origins of tithing, it's Christian mandate and her incredible donation of self as an anchorite; a person who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion. In brief, the audience was delivered a history lesson about the concept of giving. Read more

Natural catastrophe of cyclone(hurricane) Thane brought to town some new dimensions we even new that they do exists. On one way each of us was going trough intimate isolating issues manifested in physical cleaning around the house, but hurricane happened to all of us, no matter Aurovilians, guests, volunteers; brought the unifying moment with it. Jesse wanted to for the first time explore improvisational theatre on the given theme - hurricane. In interesting interview he share with us the concept of it, and what have happened on the stage. Read more

Exactly two weeks after cyclone Thane devastated our town, The Visitor Centre was full with people of all ages in a sweet anticipation of honest laughter. Jesse invited us to participate in any way, to play, share a cyclone story or just to watch. Even though the Hurricane Theater was not an already set play but a series of improvisations and it brought smiles on our faces. Healthy humorous approach of issues that might be tragic connected us once again, and proved that we are, despite our differences , one family. Read more

Visting artist Carrie Dashow shared her work with the Auroville community on the 6th of January at MMC. Dashow, a performance and video artist, lives and works in New York City. Dashow uses music, performance, video and subject participation to examine questions of citizenship, subjectivity, and community. For her most recent piece, Yesiree Public Notary, Dashow served as a Public Notary at the Occupy Wall Street movement notarizing the testimonials of those partaking in the protests. Read more

For tropical Cyclone Thane warning is on we can expect max sustained winds 118 km/h with stronger gusts possible. At Multimedia Center in Town Hall on Saturday 31st of December at 5pm we can see a Puppet show. Pavilion of Tibetan Culture invites us for the 2012 Light Mandala , A Prayer for Peace ar 7pm.The WC, AC and AV Security Team published special New Year Eve Message that for New Year's Eve special Security arrangements have been made. There will be a Police presence in and around the Auroville area. AV Security -9443090107, 9443362691 Read more

In the lyrical drama based on the story from Mahabharata, visiting Morodokami theater troupe from Thailand perfomed with a contemporary approach Thai traditional and many of today's images. With this play they want to honor Tagore's work that his message is timeless as his work is always worthwhile, in this almost hopelessly selfish world of materialism, giving a lesson to today’s official leaders of the world that, unofficially, the mission of building mankind has been a task of the poet since the beginning and still is. Read more

In front of our eyes we could see vivid image of 79 years old Harold Clurman, co-founder of the famed Group Theatre of the 1930's in America. Harold Clurman was known as a "True Man of the Theater" who brought a world of new knowledge. Harold Clurman was brought to us on Christmas evening by incomparable Ronald Rand, who truly transformed himself trough two hours long preparation into the elder statesman of the American theater. Interesting, humorous Clurman's conversations with his students enlightened certain moment of history of theater Read more