Blue:Green
Roots and Routes, Gledhow Valley Woods: Hitha Sasidharan
Blue:Green
Blue:Green reimagines performance and connection through nature. Drawing on Indian traditions that honour Mother Earth – such as touching the ground before dance – Balbir takes this reverence into outdoor settings that level social access. Through rhythm, landscape language, and sensory engagement, we find new ways of understanding space, stillness, and our relationship with the planet – from the green of the earth to the blue of the sky and water.
“As artists how can we be part of the solution to the climate crisis? How can we create work that brings focus and attention to our precarious relationship with nature? This is more pressing in the present than ever before. My work uses a ‘soft sell’ approach to draw participants into thinking about the world around us, caring about our environment and exploring how we as humans constantly draw upon nature for our very existence. It’s about using creativity with nature and tuning in our senses to the aesthetics of blue and green spaces in new ways: using our senses to find the ‘aesthetic sweet spot.’ Going for a walk in nature is nice but how can we do this in a creative and active way and see the woods and the trees, the language of the landscape in new ways?”
Balbir Singh
Roots and Routes, Gledhow Valley Woods: Kali Chandasegaram
Roots & Routes
In Roots & Routes, the heritage and healing potential of a little-known urban green oasis was rediscovered on a series of creative journeys through nature that spanned the seasons, diverse artforms and communities.
At one of the project’s events, Roots & Routes welcomed the spirited Yakshagana troupe from the Indian state of Karnataka, who brought their age-old theatre tradition to the heart of Gledhow Valley Woods. The air in Gledhow became charged with powerful music, lively dance, and kaleidoscopic hues of costumes as the Yakshagana painted the woodland stage with the vibrant strokes of their performance.
