Resistance | ചെറുത്തുനില്പ്, will have its premiere at The Blue Room on 8th October and run for a short season.
It will be the Australian mainstage debut for independent artist Swaroopa Prameela Unni whose work combines the traditional South Indian dance practice of Mohiniyattam with spoken word, digital media, and original music.
Mohiniyattam is often associated with idealised femininity, but Swaroopa work draws in a much wider range of influences and experiences.
“Mohiniyattam is often seen as a celebration of idealised femininity—soft, delicate, obedient,” says Unni. “Perth audiences don’t often get to witness traditional Indian forms like Mohiniyattam being used in this way: not to preserve an ideal, but to challenge it.”
Drawing from both personal experience and broader social issues, Resistance contributes a vital and often absent perspective in national conversations around gender equality, particularly as they relate to migrant and culturally diverse communities in Australia.
“My hope is that audiences leave with a deeper awareness of how gendered violence can be embedded not only in systems, but in the most intimate parts of culture—and how art can be a powerful way of pushing back,” said Unni.
The work was first performed in Aotearoa / New Zealand in 2019, and is Unni’s most personal work to date. The dancer relocated to Perth in 2024.
Tickets to the performances are on sale now.
