Performing the Trail | October 5th | 1:30 – 3:00 pm

Performers: Sahana Balasubramanya · Meg Green · Ari Ismail · Kelly Prentice ·  donia salem harhoor · Nandini Sikand

Performances (in order of sequence):

donia salem harhoor (they/she) is a disabled diasporic egyptian anthophile and caregiver. They are an interdisciplinary artist who works with writing, movement, herbalism, site-specific performance, and film. Executive director of The Outlet Dance Project, co-director of Sakshi Productions, lover of foxes, tree lichen, collective liberation, rematriation, zaatar, & aunties cackling, their poetry has received support from Periplus, RAWI, Lambda Literary, Roots.Wounds.Words, Tin House, Swim Pony, and others.
Meg Green (she/her) is a musician and sound meditation facilitator based in Easton. She plays instruments such as gongs, singing bowls and flutes to bring people into a state of deep relaxation. Alongside, donia, Meg will lead the processional and a sound bath meditation finale.
Ari Ismail (they/he) Ari Ismail is a full-time International Affairs and Film and Media Studies student at Lafayette College. They are an aspiring filmmaker, dancer, writer, and artist who uses their various identities, experiences, and communities as inspiration for their works. They have been dancing since they were small and are excited to be performing (Un)covered (4:00) which examines relationships between the hijab, the body, and nature as well as the vulnerability in its wearing and unwearing. Ari is performing at Late Bronze Root (2009) by Steve Tobin.
Nandini Sikand (they/she) is a choreographer-dancer, filmmaker, and anthropologist. They are the co-founder and co-director of Sakshi Productions, a neo-classical Odissi and contemporary dance company, and a professor of the film and media studies program at Lafayette College. They will perform Aravi Pallavi (10 minutes) based on the raga by the same name. “Pallavi” means to blossom and builds slowly increasing in rhythmic complexity. In collaboration with Meg Green, the piece will end with an offering for which audience participation is invited.
Sahana Balasubramanya (she/her) is an acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer and professor of Mathematical Sciences at Lafayette College. An empanelled artist with the ICCR, she has performed widely, bringing to stage both traditional presentations and thematic productions. Sahana will perform MaShuKa (6:00), an alarippu (“blossoming of a flower”), a basic dance of Bharatanatyam, exploring the postures and movements of the dance form set to rhythmic mnemonics called ‘sollukattu’. This alarippu is choreographed to depict three prominent birds in Hindu mythology; the peacock (MAyura) for Saraswati and Karthiyeka, the parrot (SHUka) for Kamakshi and Kamadeva and the owl (uluKA) for Lakshmi. MaShuKa is titled as an amalgamation of their names which means beloved in Urdu. Sahana is performing at the Musical Path conceptualized and designed by Lafayette College’s Sustainable Solutions Class with Professor Ben Cohen.
Kelly Prentice (she/her) is a dancer with 40+ years of ballet training and is a registered yoga instructor with 300+ hours of training in yoga, meditation, and yogic philosophy. Kelly likes to interweave ancient discipline with modern-day challenges and her study of the Bhagavad Gita at the Arsha Vidya Gurukulum is always helping her unravel the mysteries of life as we know it. Kelly will perform The Secrets of Freedom (6:00) inspired by Vedic philosophy as shared in the Bhagavad Gita — concepts rarely taught or fully expressed in Western culture and yet, they speak directly to conflicts we face. Kelly is performing at Living Willow Grove (2017) along the KSAT.
Finale — A 30-minute sound bath meditation with Meg Green next to the Labryinth.