Rooted in social justice, our artistic work hinges on an urgent invitation to Daak, a call to action. Daak flows through the stories of devastation and tragedy, celebration and hope, that is our dancing, resonating with artists and audiences in journeys of transformation.
Our concept of Daak emerges from our understanding of energy. The churning of Yorchha™ and Shawngram™ produces heat/Aanch. Heat rises. The energy generated by our dancing moves out from us to our audiences, making palpable the possibility of hope and change. To embody, to witness, is to know and to participate in an energetic connection. The call in our dances creates a circular, vibrant engagement that circulates among the dancers, the audience, and the community.
Our call to action – based in prophecy, in a commitment to a different paradigm of energy, and in a material hope – is also a resolve that never settles. Rather, it awakens in us and in those who respond it, a powerful vigilance that makes space for conversations but refuses to be co-opted by systemic hierarchies. And so, Daak becomes the synapse where large-scale shifts become imaginable, where social action is ignited.
In our recent work, Daak has been strongly influenced by Ananya Chatterjea’s concept of #OccupyDance! Influenced by the conceptual frame of the Occupy Movement, she has crafted recent iterations of Daak by saying to audiences: Let this company of women of color occupy your imaginations as we etch the possibility of a different world through our dancing. Then, come occupy dance: dance with us, and let the stage become the space where you explore metaphoric gestures that remain lodged in your muscle memory and translate into practices toward justice in daily life.
Daak is the emotive and energetic manifestation of our work.