Actor-dancer Rima Kallingal and her dance company Mamangam presented their debut contemporary dance production Neythe, an ode to the handloom weavers of Chendamangalam, before a full house at Kochi’s Fine Arts Society Hall on Saturday, November 18. Designed and conceptualised by Rima herself, the 35-minute production featured eight dancers showcasing the journey of a piece of fabric, tracing its transformation from thread to cloth.

Neythe, produced in collaboration with Save the Loom, a non-profit that works to help handloom weavers, was inspired by the loss of fabric stock and livelihood faced by the weavers’ community post the devastating Kerala floods of 2018. 

Rima introduced the performance with a few words about the place of an artist in a world torn apart by war, and a prayer seeking for peace. Simultaneous with on-stage choreography and footwork that mimicked the various stages of fabric weaving, the production also integrated video footage shot by photographer Ajay Menon from weavers’ workshops. 

Weaving instruments were used in the performance, and the dancers enacted the humongous labour involved in handloom weaving through rhythmic movements akin to the sounds of the loom, building up to racy, emphatic formations. As dancers tangled and untangled themselves on stage like threads in a fabric, by the end of the high-intensity performance, they were able to give the audience a semblance of how cloth is woven. Fabric, as Rima explained in her introduction, is the heart of Neythe, an accessory that is a constant companion to a human being from birth to death. “It embraces everything and shadows life itself,” she said.

The meticulous choreography of Neythe is by Bangalore-based artist Ashwin George, and the music is by Attakalari alumnus Lional Lishoy. 

Though the production was originally planned during COVID times as an NFT (Non-Fungible Token) series with eight videos on weaving, as pandemic restrictions were lifted, the team decided to convert it into a stage performance. 

Mamangam Dance Company was started ten years ago by Rima Kallingal in Kochi to promote performing arts, and though the team has been touring with dance pieces for long, Neythe is their first full-length contemporary dance production.