Celebrated bharatanatyam artist Mythili Prakash presents the UK premiere of She’s Auspicious in the opening programme of Sadler’s Wells East from Friday 28 February – Sunday 2 March 2025. Prakash assembles an all-female cast for She’s Auspicious, a production that explores the intricate interplay between the worship of Goddesses and treatment of women in society.
In She’s Auspicious, how do you use Bharatanatyam to explore the relationship between the worship of Goddesses and the treatment of women in society?
While Bharatanatyam is very much my artistic language (I’ve trained in it all of my life), its values and aesthetics have also become an undercurrent of exploration/questioning through the process of this piece. The exploration of the irony and tension that exists at the intersection of Goddess worship and the treatment of women in society, extends to the complexity in the aesthetic values that shape Bharatanatyam as we know it today, where the spiritual tenet of “see the dance, not the dancer” contrasts with the heavily ornamental, performative aspects that characterize the form.
The piece also explores notions of purity, restraint, and beauty all of which underlie the unspoken tension in femininity, both in the larger context of society, and in the specific context of Bharatanatyam. Therefore, Bharatanatyam is both a medium and a subject of exploration in this piece.
How does the mythical story of the Goddess Devi shape your choreography, and what emotions or messages do you hope to convey through inhabiting her character?
The mythical story of the creation of the Goddess as a means of destroying the demon Mahisha, was one of the starting points in my creation process. According to myth, Mahisha had been granted a boon by which he could not be destroyed by man. So, the Male Gods put their energies together to create a Female goddess bourne of their fire, and wielding their weapons.
As a child (and even now!) I always wondered why the Male Gods had to create a Goddess rather than calling upon one of the many existing Female Goddesses. As I’ve grown, I’ve become aware that this reflects larger social questions of expectations and agency when it comes to the values that shape femininity.
As a second-generation Indian-American artist, how has your cultural background influenced your interpretation of Bharatanatyam, especially in addressing contemporary issues like gender and societal norms?
I think being a second-generation Indian-American, living and growing up in America, but performing a form with such a specific cultural context means that I couldn’t take for granted that my audiences would be familiar with the content of my dance. For me, the dance spoke deeply and personally and I always wanted to find a way that my friends and audiences could connect to it in a way that was beyond a superficial appreciation of its ethnic “uniqueness.”
Searching for a “universal” context was always something that was at the heart of my explorations. However, in the last few years of becoming more familiar with the history of erasure within the form, I have become increasingly aware of how the attempt to “universalize” can sometimes align with an erasure of the nuance that comes with the cultural detailing.
Though not deliberately, the alternative – this process of investigation in creative exploration: asking questions of WHY things are (particularly things that we take for granted) – can be a way of delving more deeply into the specific to arrive at the universal.
My mom, who was my first teacher and has always been a big influence, loved to approach stories from the female perspective. This colored my journey, and as I continued along those lines, I found that alongside “empowerment” lay its opposite. The tension between the two was a fascinating subject of creative and critical exploration.
Also more and more, dance is my way of expression. Therefore the things that I experience- personally, politically, socially, spiritually – all find their way into my dance.
What does working with an all-female cast bring to the creative and performative process of She’s Auspicious, and how does it deepen the collective narrative of womanhood in the piece?
Every woman comes with her unique experience of what it means to be a woman, and there is an unfortunate and alarming consistency across many of the things we experience. That shared experience creates an unspoken energetic layer that is felt. And I think in a piece that is centered around the experience of femininity, it goes without saying that this itself deepens the collective narrative of womanhood in the piece.
What does it mean to you to premiere She’s Auspicious at Sadler’s Wells East, and how do you see this performance contributing to the dialogue around classical dance and its relevance in today’s world?
I love London deeply. A huge part of it is my involvement with the Akram Khan Company, particularly Akram who is a mentor to me and someone I am tremendously inspired by. I have performed at Sadlers, both in Akram’s works and in my own work at the Darbar Festival in 2017 curated by Akram. I have also seen countless shows at Sadler’s Wells. So to have my own work now presented in the opening season of Sadler’s Wells East, is special.
What excites me about London is how many young artists there are who are exploring their own paths- finding ways to connect their diasporic experience to the legacies of their traditions and heritage.
I am someone who has felt extremely at home in the “traditional” world, and my exploration of what may be considered “contemporary” comes out of the depth of my training; the questions I am asking are from WITHIN the form, not from the outside.
While I hope that contributes to conversations around what constitutes “classical dance,” the content of the piece- including how we interpret mythology and how we perceive femininity and performance – are very much intended to encourage discourse.