'When I dance, I am a woman.'
'Orientations' is a wild gender-bending mix of dance, film, theatre questioning masculinity, femininity and everything in between!

Border Crossings presents, Orientations, a new mixed media theatre production examining gender and sexuality, set in present day India. Directed by Michael Walling with set design by Archana Hande, Orientations begins as a traditional soap opera: Amrit, a young man disappears to India after attending a Yakshagana dance class presented by a visiting Guru. His lover, Linda, decides to go to Bangalore to find him. Here she discovers a country where myth collides with present day life -- and everything is not quite what it appears on the surface.

Yakshagana is a folk theatre form from Karnataka, where a man traditionally enacts a female role. It combines dialogue with dance and in Orientations is used as a vehicle to look at the way in which performance crosses over with the creation of gender.

Orientations, features some of India's leading contemporary artists: Radhakrishna Urala, is a traditional performer of female roles in the folk form, Yakshagana; Pritham Chakravarty is an actress and social activist, who presented a solo show about hijras (eunuchs) at the Edinburgh International Festival 2002 while Adil Hussain, a graduate of the National School of Drama, Delhi is considered to be an up and coming Om Puri. Other cast members: Peter Kenny actor and counter tenor, and Lydia Baksh, best known for her work with Frantic Assembly.

Orientations draws upon the research and testimonies of organisations such as Naz Project, London; Rahi, (incest survivors), Delhi and work within the Aravani (hijra) community in Chennai.

ABOUT BORDER CROSSINGS

Border Crossings is an international company working in theatre and combined arts, established in 1995. It has a reputation for producing work drawn from a range of cultural traditions. Past Productions include: Double Tongue and Mappi Mundi.

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