ELEVATION | Opening Act & Dialogue au Mât (Le Mât)

In collaboration with Institut Français en Inde, as part of the Lodhi Art Festival, ELEVATION brings together two aerial works that orbit a shared obsession: gravity, balance, and the human impulse to rise beyond limits. Rooted in movement yet reaching for stillness, this double bill unfolds as a continuous arc — from fall to flight, tension to release, grounding to transcendence.

The evening opens with Approach 17. Opening, where an ordinary staircase becomes a site of extraordinary possibility. The performer enters into a precise dialogue with physical laws. Each ascent, slip, and rebound is calibrated to a concealed trampoline, revealing fleeting moments of suspension — fragile pauses where the body hovers between mastery and surrender before gravity claims its due.

Emerging from a cross-cultural encounter with the Indian discipline of Mallakhamb, Dialogue au mât deepens this exploration. Performed around a vertical pole, the piece blends the fluid grace of dance with the raw force of acrobatics. It traces an intimate journey shaped by discipline, devotion, and transformation — seeking balance between structure and freedom, strength and spirit.