VIDEODANTE#India_Episode VI

Angels delves into the celestial realms of Dante’s Divine Comedy, exploring the intersection of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. This episode features a collaboration between Italian theatre company Instabili Vaganti and Indian dancer Anuradha Venkataraman, who brings her expertise in Indian classical dance to embody the ethereal beings that guide souls through the afterlife.

The performance integrates elements of Indian mythology and Dante’s poetic vision, creating a transcultural dialogue that highlights the universality of spiritual themes. Through a blend of physical theatre, dance, and evocative imagery, Angels offers a contemplative journey into the metaphysical aspects of existence

In his poem, Dante often mentions India, the Ganges river and, as per tradition of the time, places the heaven on earth in the Indian territory. India therefore struck, with its wonders, the mind of the poet, who, imagining the East, saw the sun rise from the Ganges.

The project was born from the remote collaboration between Instabili Vaganti, the Indian classical dancer Anuradha Venkataraman and the Indian association Culture Monks, thanks to the production of the Italian Institute of Cultural of New Delhi and the Italian Consulate of Kolkata, in order to explore the numerous connections between Dante’s work and Indian culture, both from an iconographic, philosophical and theological point of view.

The work of investigation and collection of suggestions on parts of The Divine Comedy will be aimed at the production of seven different video episodes, exactly like 7 are the days spent by Dante in the otherworldly journey. These episodes will compose a series addressed specifically to the web audience through the platforms and  the social media channels of the company and of the Italian Institute of Cultural of New Delhi, in order to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the death of the great poet.

Each short video will foresee various artistic collaborations, in Italy and India.