Kalaa Dhari: Our Story & What lies Ahead
This note highlights the discovery & relevance of Kalaa Dhari: of creating spaces where individuals, groups and communities can come together to engage in activities focussed on creativity, body-centered work, reflection & intervention in order to bring to focus a deeply empowering & embodied approach to social change & justice.
My name is Arundhati and I founded Kalaa Dhari: The Art of the Inner Revolution in 2021.
As an individual, my varied experiences of having worked in the sector of Social Work from learning to ‘manage poverty’ to ‘fighting for human rights’ led me to the discover that the answers to equality, justice and well-being of society actually lies within us; and that it is a matter of creating spaces of calm, creative flow, & radical compassion that can pave the path for us to do the inner work & discover those answers, embody the solution and create and live in a better world. Discovering the Art of the Inner Revolution has been my personal journey which over time has taken root as an organization: Kalaa Dhari.
In this note, I will take you through my personal journey, through the churning of which Kalaa Dhari was founded which was initially a deeply personal space for solace, grace, growth & justice. Following this, I will take you through the expansion of Kalaa Dhari and the work we have done over the past few years with an attempt to multiply these spaces of creativity, play & a reclamation of agency. Lastly, I will share with you Kalaa Dhari’s plans for the future to engage in sustainable ways for these spaces to continue thriving.
Personal Journey & Background
In 2015, having worked in the sector of social work & social justice with various organizations for over 7 years, I realised that a significant amount of my effort & energy was going to ‘fix problems’ that were ‘out there’. In August 2015, I walked close to 200 kms with a group of social activists demanding justice for a young adivasi woman who was murdered in her village by the state machinery. Though the intention in my heart and the reasoning in my head was that I was walking for women’s liberation & empowerment, at the end of the rally, I was left with a broken ankle, severe digestive issues, high fever and a messed up menstrual cycle. Leave alone empowering young adivasi women in my country, I didn’t feel empowered myself. At the end of this rally, which was supposed to signify the pinnacle of my efforts towards women’s liberation, I was left feeling utterly depleted, dis-empowered and unwell. In terms of finding a vocation that my heart and soul resonated with, I had hit rock bottom.
Consequently, I spiraled down as I realized that the fervor with which I participated in these rallies and events was in fact a mere reflection of my own inner struggle as a woman: the pain of which was too unbearable to even look at in the eye. Instead, what I had been doing was focusing on the issues that were ‘out there’ and trying to fix them somehow, hoping for some relief for my inner struggle as well. Amidst this utter chaos and the breakdown of the world the way I knew it, I began engaging in an inner dialogue with myself, as if I were talking with a friend who I really cared about.
‘What do you really want to do?, I asked myself. ‘I don’t know, ‘ I heard her reply.
‘What can you do today that will make you happy, bring you joy, even if it was just for this moment?’, I asked.
‘Can you just stay with me as I take a few deep breaths?’, I heard a tiny voice in response.
And breathe, I did.
As I continued with this inner dialogue and churning, one day, I realized that Theatre brought me joy. While in school I did a lot of theatre & drama activities, but as a young woman who was born into a ‘so-called-upper caste’ family, I was told that ‘it wasn’t our culture’ to engage in theatre and perform in public. I wasn’t allowed, or given permission to engage in theatre activities in college or outside college.
However, at this phase in early adulthood, when I was at the cross section of figuring what sparks joy in me to lead a more fulfilling life, I decided to stop blaming my parents for ‘not allowing’ me to do theatre when I was younger, and to take this matter into my own hands. It was my responsibility to create spaces where I could be joyful. And if I truly wanted to serve the community & people around me, it was important that I did so from a space of joy. I realized that I wanted to bring in the social & political nuances of our times into theatre activities. As a result, I started learning various forms of theatre that also intervened in the social & political aspects of reality. I began to learn Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theatre & Psychodrama.
It was around the same time that I stumbled upon a body of work called ‘Womb Medicine’. While conventionally one only spoke about or referred to the womb while talking either about menstrual cramps or pregnancy, what I began to learn and notice was that this was only part of the Womb Story. I began to learn that the menstrual cycle was a beautiful and powerful cycle of nature that we embodied. As a person born with a womb, I had the honour of anchoring a monthly cycle of nature in my body. I began to learn that human beings, and women specifically, were cyclic beings. I began to understand that so much of my distress erupted because of trying to ascribe to milestones of success as defined by patriarchal norms & structures, as well as expecting a linear graph of growth & achievement. But by nature, my being was cyclic, like the circadian rhythm, the moon cycle & the seasons around the year, my body too went through a spring, summer, autumn & winter cycle too every month. I began to realize that returning to the wisdom of my menstrual cycle helped me anchor my life and milestones of nature. This felt deeply empowering.
During the next few years, I felt a deep inclination to pursue learning about and practicing Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) as well as learn more about Womb Medicine. August Boal’s philosophy and principles deeply resonated with my own, especially in terms of relating art & theatre as politics and reclaiming the word ‘politics’ itself. I began to notice that TO helped me move my body and express in ways that I had never been able to before. It was truly transformative & deeply empowering as it created space to revisit narratives of a personal, social & political nature in which one has felt ‘powerless’ with an intention to explore, examine & reclaim the sense of lost agency. It also aided a deep sense of relief and in many instances facilitated a deep transformation by addressing the issue at the root level. This was very therapeutic. However, as I began to facilitate TO workshops amongst a diverse set of communities & groups, I began to notice that both at a personal & collective level, the therapeutic impact of TO was understated. I noticed that several TO practitioners in the country shied away from claiming TO as a modality with therapeutic benefits.
At around the same time, in my journey with re-connecting with my womb, I began to notice that my disassociation & disconnection with the cycles of nature in my body had been structural & systemic. That for several generations women had been disconnected from connecting with their body, their womb and their innate power & wisdom for purposes of benefitting convention & patriarchy. Unearthing these reasons and causes were not always easy to address. During this time, I began to lean more into Trauma healing & therapy work which I immensely benefited from. Consequently, I furthered my education in psychology & trained to be a body-centered, trauma informed psychotherapist.
What became apparent was that in my personal & professional journey, there was a triangulation of three potent and meaningful bodies of work:
1. Theatre of the Oppressed which held creative ground to address the socio-political narratives for change & transformation
2. Womb medicine which helped anchor milestones of growth & progress in deeply feminine & nature-based wisdom &
3. Trauma healing & therapy (that helped in creating safe, resourced & contained spaces to address personal & intergenerational trauma)
It was during this time that Kalaa Dhari was founded. I realized that this triangulation of modalities was pioneering work, especially in the sector of social work & justice, and that it had immense potential to help us look at and change the way we perceived Justice; that Justice & social action could also encompass joy, play, honoring our innate relationship with the earth, compassion & wellness.
With this combination of knowledge & education, I felt equipped to now share this very integrated approach to personal, social & political transformation with the world. Kalaa Dhari was founded with an intention to share this beautiful rhythm of work with the world.
Kalaa Dhari in Action
While at a personal level and with clients I began to notice the rhythm in which these three modalities danced with one another and rippled deeply empowering transformations, I realized that it was essential to demonstrate & document the potential of this triangulation of work. I began to look out for opportunities where this demonstration could be formally made possible.
In August 2021, I responded to a call for proposals by Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF). I articulated a proposal called: Theatre & art in Education for young women with a focus on Theatre of the Oppressed techniques & Embodied Therapeutic Practices.
At this time, Kalaa Dhari was not formally registered & I applied for the call as an individual.
From September 2021 – December 2022, I worked on this action research project with a group of 33 young women who were enrolled in a skill development programme. During this time, I got the opportunity to demonstrate and document the process and outcome of integrating Theatre of the Oppressed and Embodied Therapeutic Practices (I focussed here on Womb Medicine & Breathwork techniques). I noticed that these processes became even more alive and vibrant in a group; that the intelligence of the modalities were such that the group itself became a container to compassionately hold the unfolding of narratives and a powerful realm to reclaim a sense of lost agency.
In this group, we worked with 33 stories of Gender Based Violence & sexual harassment and did a public Forum Performance of 2 plays amongst an audience of 300-350 villagers.
The process was enriching and empowering at different levels for everyone who was a part of it. From finding their voice to articulate better food quality & quantity from their host organization, to dialoguing about the relevance of Gender Based Violence in small villages in Himachal Pradesh, this women’s group embarked and journeyed together on a deeply personal journey, with ripple effects on the social, cultural & political fabric that they were embedded in.
You can find a more detailed report of the process & outcomes of this project here.
(https://tesfindia.iihs.co.in/03_theatre-and-art-in-education/)
These videos highlight the experience of the participants:
Finding a voice for my story: Using theatre & arts to address gender-based violence
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AanKGeutVNg&t=18s)
Meeting the shadow parts of myself: Using theatre & arts to address gender-based violence
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRV7zqqbKlA&t=12s)
And here is the complete playlist of the video documentation of the workshop series (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSuIdDzXEniSSJP3RkD0AFW8PKjeTJlQ&si=1FIyQEmC7oi1-2fF)
Apart from the TESF project, our website (www.kalaadhari.com) hosts an image gallery of the workshops we’ve conducted with various groups and institutions across the country. (https://kalaadhari.com/photo-gallery/)
What lies ahead?
In April 2023, four women, some of us queer & all of us survivors of Gender Based Violence, came together as the Board of Kalaa Dhari and registered Kalaa Dhari under Section 8 of the Companies Act with an intention to expand and formalize our work with a focus on longer term impact.
As we move forward, there are two areas of work that we would like to bring focus on:
1. Kalaa Dhari Center for Learning
Through this area of work, we would like to create a community space for theatre, movement, play & embodied work in rural Himachal Pradesh where our office is based.
At a conceptual level, the focus will be on a de-brahmical approach to create a robust community space for adults with opportunities to play, move and learn. Anchored in values of democracy, equality, nurturance and harmony, this community space will host periodic sessions in which the participants learn-by-doing the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed & Embodied Therapeutic Practices. Apart from anchoring most of the session myself, as a principal facilitator, this space will invite expert facilitators to share their wealth of facilitation knowledge with us.
The objectives of the Center for Learning will be:
– to create a safe, playful & experiential learning space for the group of learners to engage with theatre & embodied therapeutic practices and reclaim a sense of lost agency from their personal, social & political narratives.
– to learn by doing & experiencing the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed with a focus on Forum Theatre & Embodied Therapeutic Practices & on nature-based activities & breath-work.
– to welcome an unconventional & creative culture of having a Center for Learning anchored in play & learning for adults in rural Himachal.
– to engage in a series of public Forum performances through which democratic spaces for engaging with social issues, dialogue & intervention are created & nurtured. These could be in public rural spaces like the panchayat bhavan, playing ground, market spaces & so on as well in institutions like schools, colleges & universities.
– to engage with & pave the path for the learners as potential facilitators of Theatre & Embodied practices.
The students at the Center for Learning will essentially embark on a year-long course during which we will meet periodically. A curriculum that integrates the theory & practise of Theatre & Embodied Practices will unfold across 3 segments: Basic, Intermediate & Advanced. During these phases, we will go from introducing the various elements of the modalities to in-depth experientials on facilitation and performance.
A typical day in the Center for Learning will begin with warm up exercise, demonstration (by experiencing) activities pertaining to Theatre & Embodied Practices, a personal debrief followed by a debrief as practitioners & facilitators. Apart from preparing for Public performances, the sessions in the Center will also equip the participants to periodically practice as facilitators.
Through the Center for Learning, we aim to engage with a group of atleast 20 participants in year 1, and do at least 3 public performances. The outreach of these performances will be an average of 1500 individuals. Though the numbers might seem small, especially from the lens of a donor agency, the invitation is to engage with this project as a process driven, qualitative project, especially in year 1 where we will also be focussing on research to document the impact of these processes. In Year 2, fellowships will be offered to the participants of Year 1 where they will have the opportunity to work (with supervision) with their own groups & communities in co-creating these spaces of Theatre & Embodied Practices, along with reaching out to atleast 25 students to enroll in Year 1 of the course.
2. Kalaa Dhari Fellowship
Through this area of work, we would like to create a national community of learners who would be interested in learning-by-doing facilitation skills in Theatre of the Oppressed & Embodied Therapeutic Practices. Through a combination of online & in-person workshops, we aim to create a pool of practitioners who could learn and engage in multiplying democratic spaces of play, dialogue, creativity & compassionate inquiry into personal, social & political narratives with an intention to ripple positive change and transformation in society.
The objectives of this Fellowship will be:
– to create a safe, playful & experiential learning space (at the national level) for the group of learners to engage with theatre & embodied therapeutic practices and reclaim a sense of lost agency from their personal, social & political narratives.
– to explore & learn-by-doing in-person & well as online techniques of facilitation of theatre & embodied therapeutic practices
– to learn by doing & experiencing the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed with a focus on Forum Theatre & Embodied Therapeutic Practices, with a focus on nature-based activities & breath-work.
– to engage in a series of public Forum performances through which democratic spaces for engaging with social issues, dialogue & intervention are created & nurtured.
– to engage with & pave the path for the learners as potential facilitators of Theatre & Embodied practices.
The Fellowship will be a two year long course, similar in style to that of the Center for Learning. The curriculum would integrate the theory & practise of Theatre & Embodied Practices & will unfold across 3 segments: Basic, Intermediate & Advanced. In the Fellowship, each segment will be a combination of online & in-person sessions. While we will be meeting the fellows online on a periodic basis to demonstrate, discuss and practice methods that can be used online, we will meet in-person for week-long intensives, thrice a year, to demonstrate & learn-by-doing Basic, Intermediate & Advanced levels of this work. Each workshop intensive will culminate in a public performance.
Through the Fellowship, we aim to engage with a group of 20 participants in year 1, and do at least 3 public performances. During Year 1 we will also be focussing on research to document the impact of these processes. In Year 2, individual fellowships will be offered to the participants of Year 1 where they will have the opportunity to work (with supervision) with their own groups & communities in co-creating these spaces of Theatre & Embodied Practices, along with reaching out to atleast 25 students to enroll in Year 1 of the Fellowship.
Research & Documentation
We are aware that the area & modalities of work that we are curating & offering is innovative with a potential of breaking new & unchartered ground. Keeping this in mind, we will have a strong focus on documenting our process & outcomes as well as developing methods of qualitative research that can help us track the progress and impact of our work.
Concluding remarks:
Short term, medium term & longer goals: Scalability, Replication & Sustainability
Our short term goals through this project would be to launch the Center for Learning in Year 1 and engage with a set of 20 participants as potential facilitators. Through this group, during year 2 we intend to engage with various communities & groups, institutions & organizations (both governmental & non-governmental, welfare as well as educational institutions such as schools, colleges & universities) to demonstrate and invite an engagement to the potential of these methods in their own spaces.
In Year 2, we will also launch the fellowship programme, inviting a national network of potential facilitators to join & learn with us. During Year 3, we engage with various communities & groups, institutions & organizations at a national level to demonstrate and invite an engagement to the potential of these methods in their own spaces.
While our Center for Learning & Fellowships will continue being launched & conducted each year, our medium term goals are to begin to replicate the Center for Learning model at a national level, with a focus on community based work. During this time, we also hope to begin to generate revenue and put in place a revenue model that is anchored in community work & collaboration with institutions & organizations.
Our longer term goals would be to actively contribute to policy level interventions & longer term educational programmes that are anchored in community led, theatre & embodied practices so that these practices can thrive within institutions & structures that can greatly benefit from it. Last but not the least, we would also like to have a physical School for Theatre, an international Center for Learning which could become a beacon, a community centered Center for Learning the Art of the Inner Revolution using Theatre & Embodied practices.
We continue to invite opportunities for funding & collaboration through which we can co-create a community of deeply empowered & grounded learners.
Kalaa Dhari 