It was Frida Kahlo who once wrote, “I do not think that the banks of a river suffer because they let the river flow.” There are dozens of quotes pulled from different essays that are scribbled on post-its around my office. I often look at this one and contemplate why we aren’t more like river banks. It feels rare for human bodies to flow in such a state, allowing experiences to happen without imprinting our bodies with the weight of memories and emotions, mostly grief.  

I find myself thinking about this a lot. Majority of our waking hours consist of doing the things that we may not actually enjoy. Writing emails, sitting in unproductive meetings, small talk, contemplating memes, etc. Years can go by without us taking a moment to reflect on our state of being. 

An active pursuit to resist this has been to learn how to live in my body rather than my mind. So when Isorine Marc programmed Discover Dance last week, a collaborative experience between TOLive, Nova Dance, and Jamii, it influenced an uncharacteristic instinctual response from me. I took a break from my desk during lunch and rode my Nishiki down to David Crombie park. By the time I found an umbrella to sit under, Nova Bhattacharya was in namaskaram. She bowed and asked the Earth Mother for permission and forgiveness before beginning to dance atop Her soil. It was a beautiful introduction to a journey the dancers and audience embarked upon together.

Nova humanizes Earth through relational connectedness seldom considered. She co-exists in a state of oneness that I’ve been silently working towards, embodying humans and nonhumans, especially the mythological beings ranging from Brahma to Sarasvati, that allow her to transcend the human form. “As a racialized person moving through the world, I carry all of myself in performance, holding both pain and pleasure in my body. The act of dancing makes me feel better.”  

Sukruti Tirupattur and Neena Jayarajan joined her in a Bharatanatyam dance. They floated with one another when the drums sounded. The way they gracefully moved each muscle of their hands, as if slowly untethering all of the grief from our bodies. I no longer thought about the heaviness of the work I do in reforming colonial movements as a brown woman. I felt the bliss of silence in my body. “All art is political but our human presence transcends that.” Nova speaks about making the personal universal by being steeped in oneness despite walking through life as a woman of colour herself. She is one with the universe and puts her human costume on only when required.