Welcome to Falling Water,
the Student showcase portion of our
Falling Water Festival
Land Acknowledgement
We wish to acknowledge Tkaronto (Mohawk word meaning where there are trees standing in water), as a gathering place for many people of Turtle Island. We recognize the long history of First Nations people in Ontario and show respect today to the Wendat, the Petun, the Haudenosonee, the Anishinaabekwe, the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Chippewa, who also travelled these routes.
This territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe, and allied nations to peaceably
share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. This territory is also covered by the Upper Canada Treaties.
Today, Ktaronto is a home and meeting place for many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island (North America).
We are grateful to be here - Chi Miigwetch
IN MEMORY
Michele (Myuri) Lee Zonka
July 16, 1948 - November 5, 2024
You danced the path with me from the very beginning, and it was an honour to share intensive hours of study, practice and rocking duet work with you, over the years, and across continents.
Love Always, Joanna
Artistic and Production Team
Joanna de Souza, Artistic Director M-DO/KathakToronto
KathakToronto teachers: Joanna de Souza, Jane Morris, Amrit Phull, Aarti Anand
Poetry Concept and Composition: Jane Morris
Poetry Recitation: Aruna Mitra
Music Production: Ian de Souza, Matt DelCiampo
Video Production: Toby Proctor, Cathy Ord, Ed Hanley
Graphic Designer: Mihaela Dirlea
Program and Website Development: Mihaela Dirlea and Tippi Chai
Social Media Coordinator: Ria Kapoor
Theatre Tech Support: Will Morris, Ian de Souza
Special Thanks:
The Late Pandit Chitresh Das, whose life work and shared inspiration continues to guide.
Toronto Public Library staff, Amanda Luisa Sampaio & Diana Espinosa.
Thank you Jane, Amrit, and Aarti, for your committed teaching, shared vision and depth. Thank you Sucheta, for your invaluable editing skills.
Anuja and all at Thindi Indian Café for support.
Thank you to all the students for their passion, care and commitment.
All volunteers today, we couldn’t do it without you! and thank YOU for joining us today.
- Joanna
Kathak, a dance form rooted in exacting technique, evocative lyricism and the lofty goal of dancing in such a way that all becomes one, lends itself to narrative work that spans time, geography and culture. Today, we are so happy to share our school’s student showcase Falling Water with you.
Ancient rivers once nourished and protected the lands where we built our biggest cities. They supported an unimaginable diversity of native plants, animals, insects, fish and birdlife. Now, they're buried underground. Daylighting historical creeks and rivers could help mitigate impacts of climate change, while returning nature to her rightful place as our greatest gift.
Jane Morris: Poetry Concept and Composition:
Jane has loved nature since she can remember, and kathak since 1993 when she began classes with her teacher/mentor Joanna de Souza. It is a delight to put them together. In addition to continuously studying Kathak, creating new writing and choreography and occasionally performing, Jane loves teaching beginner and intermediate classes for our school.
Joanna de Souza
Twice Dora Award nominated Joanna de Souza, received a Master’s Degree in kathak dance through Prayag Sangit Samiti, Allahabad, India. Her study began in 1978, under her guru, the late Pandit Chitresh Das. Joanna is respected internationally as a dancer, choreographer, and is a much sought-after teacher.
Named one of the "leading Indian classical dancers in Canada" - INDIA TODAY Magazine, she has represented Canada at the World Performing Arts Festival in Lahore, Pakistan, and the Romerias de Mayo festival in Holguin, Cuba.
In Toronto, she co-founded M-DO/KathakToronto which is home to dance classes, master classes and workshops, at the highest artistic level. Her dance company Chhandam, has toured nationally and internationally, bringing their innovative approach of Kathak, to a wide audience, and in 2018 Chhandam in collaboration with choreographer/dancer Misty Wensel, toured India with their collaborative work BARDO.
She was a musician and dancer with the acclaimed Toronto Tabla Ensemble from 1993-2010, and has taught across Canada, Trinidad, the US and India.
She is the recipient of Angikam’s Dr.Maya Rao Award, for recognition of her body of innovative kathak choreography.
Today's Program
1. Instant and Eternal
Forged in the chaotic violence of the expanding universe
Billions of years ago
In a swirl of elemental interaction
Hydrogen and oxygen bonded
Water was born
Life soon followed
Dancers: Aarti Anand, Tippi Chai, Mihaela Dirlea, Sucheta Heble, Natasha Manji, Jane Morris, Mamta Pranjivan, Vibhu Sharma
Music: Fratres - Arvo Part
Choreography: Joanna de Souza
2. Pathways
Shaped by the slow grinding of glaciation
Over thousands of years
Channeling through the leftover debris
Our waterways formed
They came to life and flourished
Life has always come from water
Dancers: Aanshi Gandhi, Disha Sachdeva, Kirandeep Kaur Chahal, Prachi Patel, Parul Monga, Praseeda, Versha Rangaswamy, Zaria Haider
Music: Vilambith - Santosh Naidu: tabla; Joanna de Souza: harmonium, recitation
Choreography: Amrit Phull & Joanna de Souza
3. Life and Beauty
Magic happens when water flows slowly overland
Waves of life come and go
Single cells swim in the waters
Little mimics of the universe
They bond together in a dazzling display of new forms
Shape shifting into plants and animals
Swimming as one
Diving apart
A complex choreography of life and death
Grief and joy
Endless change
Life dances in the waters of the universe
Dancers: Amyna Kanji, Alisha Thawer, Nawrin Sultana, Souraiya Kassam,
Shivani Mathur ,Tamanna Bhardwaj, Vidyashree Balagangadhariah,
Myuri Komaragiri, Divya Vishwanadh
Music: Life and Beauty - Evan Ritchie: percussion programming; Ian de Souza: bass, music composition; Andrea Koziol: vocals; Joanna de Souza: recitation
Choreography: Joanna de Souza with Aarti Anand
4. Running Water
Hear the call of running water
Gather by the river’s edge
Dha dhin da dhin dhin dha
Dance with nature, sing her song
Dancers: Namrata Malhotra, Reshma Jose, Ria Kapoor, Sadaf Ahmed, Divya Vijay, Shughla Ismail, Sana Zehra, Naina Khanna
Music: In the Forest - George Ruckert: Composer & violin; Christopher Ris: sarod; Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri: tabla; Joanna de Souza: recitation
Choreography: Jane Morris
*Archival Recording Chitresh Das Dance Company 1981
5. Troubled Waters
Reeling from the onslaught of human industrialization
In just a hundred years
Our waterways died
One by one they fell
Choked by human waste and folly
Devalued, driven underground
In clear water we see ourselves
In dirty water, only loss
Blessing water does not make it clean
Dirty water is not holy
Dirty skin, unclean soul
We buried them as we bury our dead
Below our dead, should they be in the way
Forsaken then forgotten
They flow on in the dark
Captive streams of faded glory
Faint remembrance of rivers past
Waiting for a diviner to pass by
Waiting for half a chance
Dancers: Tanisha Chakma, Diviya Muthu, Shreya Prasad
Ashmita Roy, Anupriya Panday
Music: Ashik - El Mahdy Jr; River Death: Joanna de Souza: recitation,
Matt DelCiampo & Ian de Souza: composition
Choreography: Joanna de Souza with Aarti Anand
6. Buried Treasure
Nature needs no permission
Just opportunity
A diviner passes by
Opens her veil
Senses the water below
Flowing lifeless in the dark
She digs away the dirt
Unburies the river
Breathes deeply, and smiles
Dancers: Sandhya Gopalakrishnan, Priyanka Shertukde, Jessica Thadickal,
Akanksha Patnaik, Tanurina Datta, Anita Katakkar, Priti Anand, Nishtha Sharma
Music: Evan Ritchie: drum programming; Santosh Naidu: tabla and effected tabla; Joanna de Souza: MalletKat, recitation; Ian de Souza: Bass, music programming
Choreography: Joanna de Souza
7. Community Calls
Hear the call of running water
Gather by the river’s edge
She basks in Sunlight, breathes fresh air
Nature notices and the wild moves in
Latent power unleashed
Dormant seeds springing alive
As if by magic
But nature is much more than magic
Opportunity knocks, nature answers
Opens her door to the wild and the wonderful
Maybe wonder alone makes it all worthwhile
FULL CAST
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