Under the leadership of Artistic Director of Achinta McDaniel has grown Blue13 Dance Company into the United States’ first professional contemporary Indian dance company, touring nationally and internationally. At 8 pm on September 28, 2024, Blue13 Dance Company will premiere McDaniel’s 100 Seconds to Midnight at Los Angeles’ iconic outdoor amphitheater, The Ford where Tickets are on sale now.
Over the years McDaniel, A first-generation South Asian American, has created her own unique dance theater choreography by infusing a wide range of dance styles to include ballet, jazz, tap, modern, hip hop, Bhangra, Kathak, and Bollywood. For her latest work, 100 Seconds to Midnight, McDaniel drew inspiration from the infamous Doomsday Clock. According to Wikipedia, According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock “is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a human-made global catastrophe. Maintained since 1947, the clock is to be considered a metaphor, not a prediction, for the threats that unregulated scientific and technological advancements pose to the world.
Achinta McDaniel – Choreographer, Artistic Director of Blue13 Dance Company- Photo courtesy of the artist
I sent McDaniel several questions about this new work.
How did you become interested in or what inspired you to create 100 Seconds to Midnight.
Several years ago, Jon Paul (my associate director and assistant choreographer) and I started to ruminate on the famous clock and felt the symbol to be a most powerful one. We know that war, climate change, and dangerous men around the world are a major threat to humanity. What unites us is that we are in a state of growing dread, but perhaps even at a precipice to make change and create hope,” McDaniel wrote in an email to me. “Thinking in particular about women in the US and our rights being so precarious due to the last presidential administration and the shameful Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe, the concept of “doom” is even more palpable now. Additionally, we people of the Global Majority have always had a near constant tension. The way we experience anxiety and the ticking of a clock or bomb is rather different than for the original Society of the Atomic Scientists. On top of all of this, the year 1947 saw multiple global events including the partition of India and Pakistan and the creation of the Doomsday Clock. My new work, 100 Seconds to Midnight, traverses three different times, the 16th century, the year 1947, and present day. It investigates threats to women in particular and goes a step further to interrogate our historic duty to country, to male figures like gods, fathers, and husbands. Our devotion cannot be extricated from their dominance. The clock to me can symbolize a countdown to a) a complete eradication of women and LGBTQ+ rights, or b) the moment we rise up and revolt to eradicate them.
Blue13 Dance Company in “1947”, choreography by Achinta McDaniel – Photo by Rose Eichenbaum.
To take on this daunting but very present-day project McDaniel presents 100 Seconds to Midnight in three movements:
Movement I: Vishwas is a statement on patriarchy and Hindu nationalism’s danger to secular women’s freedom.
Movement II: 1947 examines the year the Doomsday Clock was created, which was, remarkably, also the year of Indian independence, marked by the bloody partition of India and Pakistan. This movement explores the fear and panic that followed Britain’s sudden and deliberately cruel exit from the subcontinent, which killed over one million people, and displaced more than ten million along religious lines. 1947 uses contemporary dance, including Kathak-derived footwork, to comment on forced migration, islamophobia, and inherited, intergenerational hate. 1947 was first performed at the USC Kaufman at The Wallis back in April of 2022 when USC Kaufman made its debut at The Walls.
Movement III: Midnight is a comment on the present state of the planet: war, climate change, populism, forced birth, and gun violence, predominantly perpetrated by the “first world” United States where we reside.
Please write about your process for this work.
I love working collaboratively and from a research framework together with Jon Paul and my dancers, along with of course our team of collaborative artists, musicians, etc. The process has included scoring the third act (Midnight) with excerpts and narrative elements from Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and transposing them on the dancers through improvisation to develop phrase work. We’ve also used poetry and mythology surrounding revered 16th century Indian poet Meera Bai, who Reena Esmail had in mind when composing the piece, Vishwas. This serves as our first act in the piece. And we have collaborated with the Society of the Atomic Scientists, who have kindly provided archives and artwork for our use in developing the overall piece. We’ve also used the text Train to Pakistan by Khushwant Singh to serve the dancers with motivation for 1947. So basically a collision of research and text including scoring and embodied research is at the crux of making the work.
Blue13 Dance Company in “1947”, choreography by Achinta McDaniel – Photo by Sean Daniels.
How or why did you choose the subjects for the three sections?
1947 came first when I created it on 44 dancers from the Glorya Kaufman School at USC in 2022. I have been waiting/letting simmer the making a full piece based on the partition of India and Pakistan for about a decade, the fodder for which was Blue13’s LA/Islam project hosted by Grand Park in 2014, called “Shine the Light.” In that piece, and developed further for 1947, we use real audio captures and stories of people who lived through partition or on whom the effects of colonization and partition have had an impact. Two of those people are my grandmothers themselves.
Vishwas is the piece we’ve been considering for several years after Reena Esmail and I met backstage at the Wallis when we were being presented in the same season, 2020. We have a lot of affinity as Indian American performing artists/makers, she as a composer and I as a choreographer, so it felt very natural to start the conversation about collaborating. Reena always wanted a dance work set to Vishwas, and I was just thrilled to take it on, especially with the content being related to Meera Bai. I was particularly interested in Bai not only as an historic icon, but as a site to investigate duty to male figures and how devotion is different or disruptive for a woman, particularly a South Asian woman, seeking and deserving of agency.
Midnight is related to the doomsday clock: the stroke of time in which we cease to exist because of our own actions on Earth. We don’t go so far as to create an apocalypse on stage- we will leave that to the movies. This final chapter is set in 2024 and in two futures. In one, midnight is nearest at hand, and one in which we are able to empower women, the Global Majority and our allies to revolt against the status quo and create a positive outcome.
Achinta S McDaniel’s Blue13 – Photo by Daniel Valentine
When in your life/career did you decide to fuse traditional Indian dance with all the other dance forms that you mention in your press releases?
It is an inescapable part of my identity and professional and personal life: the binaries
Of American and South Asian are at continual odds, as is tradition and innovation, as is assimilation and standing out. I cannot not be a daughter of Indian immigrants with all the movement dialect and knowledge of my ancestors, without the pressure to prove we belong here while also holding on to our most important traditions. I cannot escape the push and pull of assimilation and retention: being American, being in predominantly white patriarchal spaces, finding identity (and outrage) in being othered while also honoring my parents’ sacrifices and the culture. It is the push and pull and in the negotiation that I exist- the art I make is a live enactment of that negotiation. I didn’t grow interested in “fusing” anything. I am all of those things.
Blue13 Dance Company – Arjun Kochhar, Hayden Rivas Bella Allen, Brenan Gonzalez in “Restless autumn, restless spring” – Photo by Sean Daniels
What about this work would you most like our readers to know or understand that would draw audiences to your company’s performance at The Ford?
The piece is important to our communities and particularly during this anxious and precarious time before the election. The best part of this premiere is that it is at the iconic LA venue The Ford- a perfect site to sip on wine and feel the joy of togetherness as we are awed by live art under the stars. It is a place for audiences and artists to come together and experience joy, anxiety, outrage, triumph, and explore the potentialities we face.
The dancers are absolute beasts- incredible practitioners, versatile, rhythmic, soulful, and theatrical. Reena and Nina’s music works are just wonderful, and audience members will have a chance to add to the audioscape during the show through whispers, snaps, and movement from their seats.
Blue13 Dance Company is based in Los Angeles and has toured nationally and internationally. I highly recommend going to see this truly exciting company.
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WHAT: Blue13 Dance Company performing Achinta McDaniel’s 100 Seconds To Midnight.
WHEN: Saturday, September 28, 2024 @8 p.m.
WHERE: The Ford
2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068
(just off the 101, between Hollywood and Universal Studios in the Cahuenga Pass)
Please dress warmly for outdoor seating
TICKETS: Reserved seating: $10 – $65. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit The Ford website. To learn about discounts for groups of 10 or more call 323-850-2050 or visit theford.com.
PARKING: A FREE shuttle to The Ford picks up at Hollywood & Highland from Orange Court, 1736 N Orange Dr, Los Angeles 90028 and Universal City/Studio City Metro Station from the “kiss and ride” area, 3913 Lankershim Blvd, Studio City 91604. Parking fees may apply. Shuttle service starts two hours before show time and runs approximately every 20 minutes, ending once the show begins. The shuttle does not run throughout the show. When the show is over, catch the shuttle at the front gates; follow signs and staff directions.
For more information about Blue13 Dance Company, please visit their website.
To view videos of Blue13 Dance Company, please visit their YouTube website.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle.
Featured image: Blue13 Dance Company in 1947, choreography by Achinta McDaniel – Photo by Rose Eichenbaum.
