Whisper in the Wings Episode 1584

0:00Let's be honest, buying cannabis shouldn't be complicated, sketchy, or low quality. That's why I want to tell you about mood.com. That's M-O-O-D.com. Mood ships federally legal cannabis straight to your door. No medical card, no hassle, and here's the kicker. The quality is better than anything you'll find at your local dispensary. Yeah, I said it. Whether you're into edibles, concentrates, flower, or just looking to explore, you'll find it all at mood. And it's not just the variety that makes them stand out. Every product is sourced from small American-owned family farms that care deeply about what they grow. It's cannabis you can trust, delivered discreetly, and ready to elevate your mood. And because you're a listener, you get 20% off your first order. Just head to mood.com. That's M-O-O-D.com to get started. Hello, everyone, and welcome back into a fabulous new Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper.

1:16We've got a wonderful guest on our program today, the artistic director and choreographer, Paelle Cadacchia, who's here to talk to us today about the sawdance company's presentation of Rise. Now, this is playing May 7th through the night at New York Live Arts, and if you'd like to get some more information, head on over to sawdancecompany.com. We are so excited that we get to talk dance today. We're so excited about this show, so without further ado, please join me in welcoming on our guests. Paelle, welcome into Whisper in the Wings from Stage Whisper. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited you're here, and I want to learn all about what this show is about Rise. So, let's start off by having you tell us a little bit about what this show is and is about. Okay, so Rise is a theatrical dance production that is based in various forms of Indian classical and folk dance, but also more contemporary styles of dance, modern dance. And it's a show that celebrates the resilience of women. It talks about dreams, it talks about expectations,

2:19it talks about struggles, and it talks about celebrations. So, it really goes through the gamut and the life cycle of a woman's journey in their life through emotional storytelling, through dance, through music, beautiful visuals, and all of that comes together to create a beautiful experience for people that helps people, you know, work through their own struggles in their life. That is amazing. So, what inspired you to want to create this work? So, I'm going to take maybe a few steps back and tell you a little bit more about where the sawdance company came from. It's a company that started about 18 years ago, and it's a platform I really built to help share the essence of the Indian American identity. It is something that obviously, you know, being, you know, first generation here, my parents immigrated here in the 70s. I wanted to really figure out a way to share my voice and my perspective as someone who was born raised here, but also had my roots tied to India,

3:25in a way that was very modern and progressive. And so, that's really where sawd came from. It became this place to share who we were, our community, our identity through music and movement. And over these years, I have been really working on a dance language that would blend those two parts of me together. And this time it really came together to not just create the movement and the music, but to tell a story that is about who we are, but really who every person and human is at the end of the day, their ability to overcome and get to the other side. So, sawd has been a long time in the making. The show started about five years ago, and it was a little bit before COVID. It was an idea I had because every time the company would perform, I would have people come up to us and say, wow, I wish I brought my little girl to this. And I think there is something in the essence of the way we dance, which I'll get into a little

4:25bit more. And, you know, the innocence and beauty, that, and femininity, that a lot of us carry, but then also the strength that we have as dancers, as artists, that I think really makes someone see what the breadth and scale of a woman and of a little girl can be. And that really got me thinking about what I could do with my work to send a message that's deeper. I've also lived many lifetimes. I am an entrepreneur as well. I'm the founder of ClassPass, so I've lived many lives, and in a world that was hard and challenging. And I remember through that, everyone always asked me this question, how do you do this being a South Asian woman? And to me, the answer to that was always, I did it because I am her, because she is the strongest woman I know. And I wanted to create a show that celebrated that type of strength and duty and willingness to get through anything. And, you know, his or her life, right? And that's really where Rise came from.

5:28That is incredible. That is an amazing journey there. And keeping us going on this journey, I mean, at the time of a speaking, we're just weeks away from the show going up. So, what has it been like developing it so far and getting it up on its feet? Yeah, so I really started creating the music in 2020, which feels now like ages ago. And so, I always start with music. That's always the first place I star. And then because of COVID, we had two years of Zoom practice with a lot of my dancers, some who lived in Hong Kong, some who lived in London. It was a very, very much an international effort to get this show together. But luckily after COVID, we started meeting and we started working on the choreography. We brought lighting into it. We got our costume design here and in India. And about two years ago, we did our first, you know, tech residency to really put the pieces of it together. And I would say, at that time, it was about 65, 70 percent on. Then we did two more shows last year to finish

6:29the development. And we've actually been on tour this whole year. So, we've done the show now 13 times. And so, New York, by the end of New York, it'll be 17. We have four shows in New York. But every time we do it, it's been an amazing journey for us as artists. And it's been an amazing journey for everyone who's in the audience. That is so wonderful. Well, building on that last thought I'd love to know, is there a particular message or thought you hope audiences take away from this piece? I would love for women in the audience to feel seen for what they show up and do every single day. I want them to know that we see them. We feel them. And I want other people to be able to see that as well. And I hope that everyone walks out a little bit healed and more empowered. Beautiful thoughts for an audience to take away. I love that. And that is a great setup to my final question for this first part, which is, who are you hoping to have access to rise?

7:33You know, it's a show for many different types of people. Obviously, you know, it's something that I would say like my community, my Indian American community is very proud of. But we have shown it to folks outside of it. And it's resonated with families, with, you know, little girls to, you know, old grandmothers. There's actually a beautiful moment in the show where we ask most of the mothers to stand, all the women in the audience to stand for everything that they have gone through in their lives. And I think it shows you that this is such a holistic show. And we go through such a varied amount of different forms of dance that I think even a dance enthusiast can come and say, wow, like I haven't seen Indian dance like that before. And that's always a great audience to have as well.

8:37Well, on the second part of our interviews, we love giving on listeners a chance to get to know our guests a bit better. And I want to start with our regular first question, which is, what or who inspires you? Playwrights, composers or shows that I heard you in the past, or just some of your favorites. And since we are talking dance, I would love to include choreographers in that as well. Of course, you know, I grew up dancing in New Jersey, okay? And I grew up in most like, my most Indian girls, we grew up dancing in basements and caraches. There's really not an Indian dance school that we had to go to at the time. And so because of that, that was the realm of dance I knew up until college. And in college, I had this amazing chance to study the history of American dance. And, you know, I was exposed to the greats, Martha Graham, you know, Twilight Thorpe, Alvin Ali. And I had to write a paper on Alvin Ali. And I had never ever been to, you know, scenes to see some of his work. And I remember watching Revelations. I was 21 years old. And I was just left

9:43floored. And I think what really got me was the way music and movement told a story culturally, but then outside of culture, it was something that I think resonated with everyone. And so I think Alvin Ali is a really big inspiration for me because it's a dance company that, like I said, has figured out a way to tell an identity of a group of people, but in a very human way, in a very human universal way. And I think that's my goal with Indian dance. And I think the one thing about Indian dance that I would say is really different than regular dances we use our faces a lot. So it's actually very theatrical. On top of being, you know, just dance and music, it really tells the story through our faces. And that's kind of what is really different about our work is everyone always comments on that. They're like, wow, your faces. And it's because we're kind of acting while we're dancing. So it actually puts together this really, you know, two realms

10:44of art in a new way, which is really compelling. But yeah, I mean, Alvin Ali, this show, even specifically, I have, you know, I've seen work from, you know, Diablo where I really loved it. We have stories in there. And Diablo does this really beautiful veterans project where they get people, you know, folks from the X military who have gone through their own traumas and they heal them through dance and movement and storytelling. And when I saw that, it really was compelling for me. And I was thinking about ways to tell the story of women, some of the things that they go through in their life. And it became a really, a really beautiful way to share that. So I was really inspired by that as well. That is a wonderful collection of inspirations, beautiful, beautiful journey as well. I'd love to know what is your favorite part about working in the performing arts? Wow, that's such a great question. I think art can transform people. You know, I think there's

11:48obviously a way for all the content we consume and all the movement we consume to change our our perceptions of things. But I think art can really transform the way you think about the world for the audience and for the people on stage. And that's always been how I've approached anything in my life. And it's such a gift to give every single performance is for the people who receive it and the people who are performing it. And I think that's what makes the performing arts such a wonderful place is that it's such a shared experience between people in real life. What a wonderful answer. And I'm going to use that to snowball into my favorite question to ask us, which is what is your favorite performing arts memory? Oh, I have so many. Wow, my favorite performing arts memory. Well, in what year was it in 2021? No, it was 2022. We were asked to

12:53perform at the White House for the Biden administration. And we got to perform at their largest and their inaugural Diwali celebration. And it was really amazing. They built us the largest stage they've ever built in the White House in the East Wing. And we performed under George Washington's photo for our entire community and for the world. So that was a really big moment. And I would say as someone who has wanted to be seen in who she is as an Indian American, it was this really great moment to be there to celebrate who we were in a very Indian American way. That is an amazing, amazing memory. Thank you for sharing that with us. As we wrap things up, I would love to know, do you or your company have any other projects or productions coming in the pipeline that we might be able to plug for you? We're really focused on rise right now and bringing it to more and more places. And yeah, we've already shared it with 5,000 people and we're excited to share it with

13:55thousands more. Very exciting. So a great setup for my final question, which is if our listeners would like more information about rise or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? Yeah, we our Instagram handle is Saw Dance Company. It's a dance company. And then our website is also sawdancecompany.com so they can email us and find our contact information there. Fabulous. Well, pie out. Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and sharing. Not only your incredible company, but this amazing show you've got coming up. This has been such a lovely conversation. So thank you for your time. Thanks so much, Andrew. Appreciate it. My guest today has been the incredible artistic director and choreographer, Kyle Kadakia, who joined me today to talk about the Saw Dance Company's presentation of rise. This is happening May 7th through the 9th and New York Live Arts and you can get your tickets and more information by visiting sawdancecompany.com. We also have some contact information for our

15:00guests, which will be posting in our episode description as well as on our social media posts. But get over to sawdancecompany.com. Stay abreast of everything that they're doing and make sure you get your tickets before they're gone for this brilliant show rise playing May 7th through 9th. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies and keep talking about the theater. In a stage whisper. Thank you. If you like what you hear, please leave a five star review, like and subscribe. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at StageWhisperPod. And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at StageWhisperPod at gmail.com. And be sure to check out our website for all things StageWhisper and theater. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com.

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