“Dastak: I Wish You Me” Short Films from Ananya Dance Theatre


October 24, 2020  •  < 1 minute read

Still from film "Dastak.1. Earth" by Ananya Dance Theatre and Darren Johnson
Still from film “Dastak 1: Earth” by Ananya Dance Theatre and Darren Johnson

This video is the first fruits of Ananya Dance Theatre’s collaboration with filmmaker Darren Johnson in their Documentation & Storytelling project of creating documentary films around the work Dastak: I Wish You Me (formerly Āgun).

Dastak: I Wish You Me will be Ananya Dance Theatre’s evening-length dance work about home, belonging, borders, boundaries, and loss. 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.

This spring and summer, Ananya Dance adapted the work to be performed in nature and public places. Four surreal dance films created by Darren Johnson are the result. 

“Until we can meet you in live performance in 2021,” they write, “we offer the spirit of the four sections, beginning with this iteration of ‘Earth,’ filmed at Coldwater Spring, Minnesota. We will release the remaining three films over the coming weeks.” Visit their website for more.

I. Earth