ABSTRACT
Drawing on travels as performers-researchers to sacred sites including the Magdalena Institute in Magdala, the River Jordan (Israel), Kurukshetra City, and the Ganges (India), Christian-actor Nora Samosir's and Hindu-Bharatanatyam dancer Nidya Shanthini Manokara's devised performance, Wandering Women: From Kurukshetra to Magdala, investigates the influence and interactions these sacred physical environments have on corporeal and aesthetic experiences. Sociohistorical and spiritual presences of spaces translate themselves into performance through the ludic yet volatile intersection between tactile experiences and sound. In particular, the performer-researchers explore how “quiet sounds” from the sacred site-visits, including shuffling of feet against the stones of the marketplace where Jesus walked at the Magdalene Institute and the bubbling water amidst temple bells at the Ganges, become catalysts for shaping performance sensibilities and implicate the social lens.
