As renowned contemporary dance company Attakkalari celebrates its silver jubilee years this year, founder Jayachandran Palazhy sees “two interconnected strands” that have shaped the organisation’s journey over the last 25 years: key institutional breakthroughs and defining creative milestones.
“In our earlier days of setting up in Bengaluru, the dancers and I used to travel to our make shift studio on bicycles and I even used to cook lunch for them,” he says, adding that things changed once funding came in from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (now Tata Trusts). This support enabled the team to establish Attakkalari’s first permanent base in the city’s Wilson Garden wherein an old garage and workshop was converted into studios, offices, and technology spaces. “That modest beginning made it possible to launch long-term initiatives such as the Diploma in Movement Arts and Pedagogy and Sankshipta.”
Sonnet of Samsara
| Photo Credit:
SAMUEL RAJKUMAR
Today, Attakkalari functions from a four-storey rented building with three studios, a theatre, café and a space for their tech division. Now in the works is the Centre for Innovation in Performing Arts (CIPA) that will include two indoor theatres, a large amphitheatre, multiple studios, an audio-visual library, and an incubation centre for new works. “Dedicated facilities will house a Kalarippayattu pit and wellness centre, a stage technology resource centre, exhibition spaces, and a restaurant,” explains Jayachandran.
To commemorate the silver jubilee, “a double bill that reflects both our roots and our global outlook” has been planned. The evening will open with Geometry of Becoming, a 25-minute outdoor, site-specific work inspired by the sacred geometry of rangoli.
“Reflecting Bengaluru’s diversity and creative energy, the piece treats Rangoli as a metaphor for performance. The choreography is imagined as tributaries with distinct geometric forms, movement vocabularies, and musical identities,” Jayachandran says of the piece he has choreographed.
A performance by Attakkalari
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The second presentation titled Sonnet of Samsara is an hour-long production that has been performed in the UK and Italy. “Commissioned by the Serendipity Arts Festival and produced by Attakkalari in collaboration with Kinetika Design Studio, London, with support from the British Council, the work responds to the climate emergency, environmental crises, conflicts, and deepening societal divisions,” he says of the piece that draws from myths, memories, lived experience, and imagination.
Sonnet of Samsara
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
As Jayachandran looks back at the last few decades he explains how, earlier, discussions around contemporary dance “were often marked by suspicion and framed as a polarity between traditional and contemporary aesthetics”.
That has changed today, Jayachandran says. “Across Bengaluru and increasingly across India, artists are asking vital questions, developing innovative strategies, and creating original, often transdisciplinary works,” he says. Dance, he adds, has always been integral to Indian culture. “A few centuries ago, it enjoyed both high social status and economic viability. After all, even our gods dance. During my years in the UK, I was regularly invited by the Arts Council of England and National Dance Agencies to contribute to policy discussions on dance and the performing arts. In India, such platforms are still largely absent.”
Sonnet of Samsara
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Hence, his vision for CIPA. “For such a vision to succeed, it requires sustained interest, investment, and collective responsibility from society and government alike. Despite every challenge, dance remains deeply embedded in our culture, our lives, and our very sense of being, and it will continue to endure,” concludes Jayachandran.
Geometry of Becoming and Sonnet of Samsara is on January 31 at Prestige Centre for Performing Arts (PCPA), 6 pm onwards
Published – January 28, 2026 11:49 am IST
