November 14, 2020

Ananya Dance Theatre releases "Air," 4th film in "Dastak" series

We are pleased to release Air, the last of our four-part film series, Dastak, created by filmmaker Darren Johnson. 

This spring and summer, we adapted Dastak: I Wish You Me, our new, evening-length work about home, belonging, and borders, to nature and public places. The Farsi word dastak means knockings, and the dance traces the knockings of global injustices on our hearts through four sections: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.

Until we can meet you in live performance next year, we offer the spirit of those sections in four surreal dance films (below).

Viewers are welcome to download and share the films.

The Dastak films were created by Darren Johnson of Northern Dawn Media, choreographer Ananya Chatterjea, composers Spirit McIntyre and Dameun Strange, textual magicmaker Sharon Bridgforth, performers Chatterjea, Kealoha Ferreira, Alexandra Eady, Renée Copeland, Julia Gay, Lizzette Marie Chapa, Parisha Rajbhandari, Nakita Kirchner, Noelle Awadallah, Laichee Yang, Fei Bi Chan, and Alessandra Williams. 

We are also grateful to Marcus Young, our collaborator of many years, and Emma Marlar, our production manager, for their support in the process.

Full credits are available at the end of each film.

Air was filmed at Indian Mounds Regional Park, St. Paul; Battle Creek Regional Park, Maplewood; and Coldwater Spring, Minnesota. 

Fire was filmed along and near the Lake Street corridor of Minneapolis, and University Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Water was filmed at White Sands Beach, Mississippi River Gorge, and Coldwater Spring, Minnesota.

Earth was filmed at Coldwater Spring, Minnesota.

This project is supported by the National Performance Network (NPN) Documentation & Storytelling Initiative. The NPN Documentation & Storytelling Initiative is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org

Dastak: I Wish You Me is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, in partnership with the Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, ME, UtahPresents, Salt Lake City, UT, and NPN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org

Dastak was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Dastak is being developed with support from the Urban Bush Women Choreographic Center Initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Production residency funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Dastak is supported by Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists made possible with generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

The development of Dastak was made possible, in part, by the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography at Florida State University.

Dastak is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Dastak is supported by a grant from the Marbrook Foundation.

Ananya Dance Theatre, in partnership with Dameun Strange, is a fiscal 2020 recipient of a Cultural Community Partnership grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through grants from the Metro Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.