ANIKAI Dance performances weave together music, dance and storytelling, folk and classical, modern and traditional, secular and sacred, aural and visual. With each synthesis, a language is created. ANIKAI communicates in a unique and constantly evolving language. Wendy Jehlen, founder and director, is a choreographer of Contemporary dance whose work is rooted in her life-long training in Bharata Natyam (South Indian classical dance), as well as in Capoeira, West African dance, Japanese Butoh and American Contemporary dance styles. Jehlen's choreography also incorporates her work with Deaf artists, specifically the aesthetic of American Sign Language poetry. ANIKAI's work has been produced throughout the U.S., Europe, India and Japan and has received funding from the Artist Grants Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Ford Foundation/Arts International, the Tokyo American Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. DeAnna is a principal dancer and founding member of ANIKAI Dance Company having been with the company since 2005. She is also ANIAKI's Rehearsal Director.
FOREST
“FOREST”, a work for seven dancers, combines elements from Brazilian Capoeira, South Indian martial arts, West African dance and Contemporary dance. FOREST takes us into the archetypal world of the forest, the jungle. Throughout the world, the forest is seen as a place of transformational magic. Heroes of the world's epics must pass through the forest in order to fully realize themselves. The forest is a world of elicit trysts, of confrontations between opposing forces. ANIKAI takes you into this world at its roots, draws you into its branches, and sends you flying up through the canopy. FOREST is inspired by and dedicated to the memory of the legendary storyteller Brother Blue. His voice, sound and breath open the door to the world of the forest. In the end, his breath brings us back out into the mundane, changed. The evening-length peice had its world premiere at Boston University in June 2010 and its NYC premiere at Dance Theater Workshop in July. FOREST toured throughout India in January 2011.
"At one point (DeAnna Pellecchia and Pradhuman Nayak) appear to be feral cats, which stalk suspensefully and then battle it out in an exciting capoeira duet. An intriguing mound, made (by the same dancers) one draped on top of another, grows gorgeously into a tall tree." -Lisa Jo Sagolla, BACKSTAGE
"Hamsafar" (meaning “traveling companion” in Urdu and Persian) is a trio made in collaboration with performers Alissa Cardone, DeAnna Pellecchia and Ingrid Schatz. This piece draws from the experience of living between cultures, between places, and between languages. It uses images of traveling, in groups and alone, to explore how life’s journey changes people along the way.
DeAnna joined ADC in 2005 to work on the recreation of "Crane", Jehlen's twenty-minute piece for six dancers. "Crane", inspired by Japanese images of the crane and the lotus, is based on the Buddhist concept that beauty can grow out of, and thrive amongst chaos and suffering. "Crane" premiered in India in 2002 to live music performed by musicians from India, Japan, Italy and the US. DeAnna performed in the US premiere at The Dance Theater at Boston University in June, 2005.
"Haaaa" "Haaaa" is a dance for five people, inspired by the experience of pregnancy and childbirth.It incorporates an American Sign Language poem which can be interpreted as follows:GENERATIONS-BLOOD-OCEAN-ALL-FIT-TOGETHER-CONNECT-CONNECT BACK IN TIME.This poem is layered onto movement to imply the sign for “tide”.The dance also incorporates the sign for “breath”, “gather”, and the South Indian classical dance gesture for “goddess”.
"The Day of Alast"
In Islam, the Day of Alast is the day on which humanity was created. In Sufism, this moment of creation is often seen as the day on which the Sufi’s journey toward the divine began. Before this moment, there was no duality, only unity. At the instant of creation, the one became two –human and divine. From this time forward, the two have searched and longed for each other, yearning to be one again. This duet for Wendy Jehlen and DeAnna Pellecchia, depicts the time before duality, right before the moment of simultaneous creation and division.
