Eleni of Sparta
An Indo-Greek retelling of the life of Helen of Troy
A danced story by Rajika Puri
India Habitat Center, New Dehli, India
Directed by Elize Thoron
Performed by Rajika Puri
Music performed by Bridget Kibbey (harp) Eric Fraser (bansuri), Mark Katsaounis (percussions), and Suchet Malhotra (percussions)
"The music conceived with folkloric rhythms had Indian ragas from Hindustani thaats like Kalyani, Desh, Durga, etc., very close to Greek melodic modes. Rajika as singer of Greek passages from Homer and Sappho was dramatically communicative, and with a change in intonation, the story telling alternated between scenes from Eleni’s story from one culture to that of the Sutradhar from another culture, citing parallels from Mahabharata.", Leela Venkataraman, in The Hindu
Photos by Avinash Pasricha, Inni Singh and Sunny Lamba
