#vazirani

[repokar]

India's First Supercar Revealed With Jet Turbine Power

The Goodwood Festival of Speed represents a chance for automakers to show off their most exclusive new products. It is also an opportunity for smaller marques to rub elbows with well-established luxury brands. To be noticed and remembered, companies have to bring something special.

A small Indian company called Vazirani Automotive has revealed a new supercar called the Shul, and it really catches your attention. The Shul is a new type of supercar, that features a turbine-electric drivetrain that is designed to appeal to “purists and petrolheads.” Four electric motors sit on each wheel to provide fully independent torque vectoring, each sending power through a single-ratio gearbox.

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[qupritsuvwix]

Her father had suicided when she was twelve. When she went, she took her two year old son with her.

[prescribedvinyl]

Stealing time with the original, Joseito Fernandez #guantanamera #vinyl #cuba #vazirani

[karabachian]

Identity design for Vazirani Asset Management LLC

We have the pleasure of designing the identity and website for an asset management group in New York.  The website will go live on August 29th, and below are some of the options we're exploring for the logo design.

[goodcirculation]

Studio Dance 2

Payal Vazirani

On April 20th I went to watch the Dance Departments Studio Dance 2. Unlike Studio Dance 1, this dance showcased a plethora of dances which were all interconnected at the end. All the dances were different and yet analogous in their own way.

The first dance was entitled Dinosaur Jesus Boom Boom Balloon. The name did not make much sense to me. It had one male dancer dancing and trying to convey something I am not too sure of. There was again a wide variety of rather appreciative dance movements but at the end I am not too sure what the dance was trying to convey. The second dance was named Her Adorned Reborn exhibited wide ranging colors and this dance had immense visual appeal. It made me feel joyful and content. The space on the stage was efficiently utilized and in general this dance made me feel happy and had a very positive vibe to it. Dance 3 titled Walking A Thin Line had someone on stage singing and carrying a lantern. She made me feel like she had embarked on a journey and was narrating the story of how the journey was making progress. At times I felt like the dance was just portraying the story of one’s life, which can be fast or slow paced with different events interwoven. At the end, one learns to strike a good balance between these events and emerges to be stronger and a composed person. The next dance was named I am slowly becoming my mother and the title immediately caught my attention. This dance made me eagerly wait for it solely because of the title. The dance was once again a solo performance. The dancer made good use of space on the stage. The dancer performed rather slow movements but occasionally ran from one end to the other maybe just like how a mother’s role in reality is. She constantly needs to keep up with the pace of events. The fifth dance was my most favorite. Entitled Turn to Dust, this dance consisted of a group of dancers in beautiful outfits. Sometimes the dancers would get together and perform intricate yet gorgeous movements and other times the dancers would separate and do their own thing. I enjoyed every bit of this dance and to some level I could connect to the dance and the vibrancy it bought on the stage.  Up next was an untitled dance. There was no music in this dance and it had an eerie feel to it. The dancer performed slow movements but I am not sure what she was trying to express, but all her movements did keep me involved and wondering what the dance was about. The final dance was named Micro Love. It beautifully captured commotion, diversity and multiplicity. There was a lot happening on the stage in a very short span of time. A very interesting part of this dance was that the dance included the dancers conversing in different languages. This was very intriguing and made me eagerly wait for what was going to happen next. It tried to emphasize on diversity and maybe different cultures coming together which was encompassed strikingly in this piece. The fast paced series of events happening one after the other kept me on the edge of my seat and definitely wanting more. After Turn to Dust I enjoyed this dance the most.

Studio Dance 2 was definitely an enjoyable watch as it brought a variety of dances and dance styles on stage. Some pieces caught my attention and fascinated me to no extent. I felt that all the dancers thoroughly enjoyed themselves and some of the pieces tried to convey a strong and powerful meaning vis a vis being extremely entertaining. 

[goodcirculation]

PHANTOM LIMBS 69°S REVIEW

Payal Vazirani

To have a phantom limb is to have a sensation that an amputated limb is still attached to the body and is moving appropriately with the other body parts. With this definition that I already knew, I went to watch Phantom Limbs on the 6th of April at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts. Reading the brochure handed out at the beginning of the performance gave me a good insight as to what to expect on the performance. Somebody who did not have any prior knowledge on the show would have been perplexed with the series of events happening on the stage and their significance.

The dance was based on Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank at the latitude 69 degrees South during the Endurance expedition in 1914. A series of hardships and struggles faced by the crew members of the ship followed but Ernest finally managed to get everyone safe to the Elephant island and saves all lives and eventually emerges as a protagonist in every respect.

The show had enormous emphasis on props, costume, stage set up, music and lights and very little on dance.  I remember seeing rolls of white sheets suspended on the stage before the performance. The entire stage was lit with silver light and the set up made me feel like it was amidst the Antarctic. The rolls of white sheet very closely resembled glaciers and icebergs. Both corners of the stage were occupied with a band consisting of four people, two on guitars and the other two on the drums. This dance profusely made music with the help of this band which was appealing at certain times and annoying at others.  I am assuming the loud and exasperating music was to suggest the commotion and pandemonium of the crew members of the ship and their despair.

During the first part of the show, dancers in red emerged on the stage and performed slow and subtle movements. Within no time, I saw them clinging onto each other, feeling helpless and lost, one person trying to help the other in moving forward. This I guess was the time when the ship sank and the members on board were helping each other in this escapade.  Soon after this scene, a series of puppets leading a second line with people on stilts appeared on stage. There was not much dance happening at this point in the performance and initially I was utterly dumbstruck as to why such a set up with puppets and people on stilts was being used.  I vaguely remember there was a point when one of the crew members of the ship had fallen down on stage and the others were hoping for him to arise and not give up. This according to me was one of the good scenes of the performance as it clearly reflected how the people on board had become a part of a family and helping each other get out of this mishap had become the sole aim of their lives.  There were also parts in the dance which were comical and brought a smile to my face. They were perhaps indicative of how the crew members kept themselves engaged in talking and doing other things and did not just drown in their miseries. The dance then yet again made a transition into a chaotic frame with loud and lashing music being played and historical figures being shown. These figures were I guess the actual members of the ship and the expedition.

The last scene of the dance was focused on man with a skeleton in front of him. His arms were outstretched and lots of confetti in red was being poured on him. This was accompanied with triumphant music being played. This scene truly depicted how Shackleton must have felt at the time he successfully managed to save all the members of the expedition and how he arose as a true leader.

Although the setup of the stage and the props used were remarkable; in totality, I think the performance was average and there were many ambiguous parts in the dance. For instance, I’m not too sure why the skeleton was used throughout the dance, and why the apparent crew members of the ship were either puppets or people on stilts. This could have been to emphasize on “limbs” in general or maybe to align in with the title of the show but this explanation does not do a good job at completely convincing me. There was nothing extraordinary about this dance and I think it was long and parts of it were confusing and did not make sense. 

[goodcirculation]

THE ORACLE

Payal Vazirani

To be very honest, I went with absolutely no knowledge about this Meryl Tankards critically acclaimed work. I went with no expectations and with an open ended mind to watch The Oracle; so it took me a while to figure out a lot of things happening on the stage in that short span of time. I did not even read the brochure I was handed at the Krannert right before the performance; maybe I was just being a little experimental; but that was what made a lot of difference to my opinion on the performance.

The Oracle was centered on one man – Paul White; who is a renowned dancer. And throughout the performance, he kept justifying why he was called the best dancer in town. The Oracle was a one man show; a man nobody could probably take their eyes off. My eyes were fixated on him; and I’m sure everyone would agree, there was not a single moment you could afford to take your eyes off the stage. There was so much happening in this power packed performance and in a tremendously short duration of time; so much so that I think The Oracle is still like a dream to me – It made me experience diverse, speckled emotions all being very versatile; just like the dancer himself. I remember being impatient, scared out of my wits, annoyed, overwhelmed, charmed, fixated, anxious, curious, all within those fifty minutes, and in varying proportions.

In the first ten minutes of the performance, Tankard made use of video clips to convey something that I am not too sure of. I remember hoping with a tinge of impatience for the performance to not just be a whole lot of these video clips being shown. The stage and the atmosphere of the performance hugely impacted and added to the show. Much of the show was in the dark, and from time to time a beaming white light was focused on Paul White. After a human kaleidoscope, a man only in his underwear walks on to the stage. From then on, the man, as promised by Tankard, relentlessly performed. He did not stop. His movements were extremely synchronized with the ever changing music. It was fascinating how he kept up with the pace of everything; the altering music, the constant gaze of the people fixed on him, the beaming focus on him, and him being seminude on stage. Inspite of everything, not once did Paul White fumble or go off track. It was simply incredible how he managed it all. Throughout the dance, White was mostly in underwear but from time to time he made use of something that looked like a cloak. Sometimes he embraced the cloak, as if it were a part of his own body and the other times he battled with the cloak. For instance, at one point, the cloak looked like long strands of hair being caressed by a girl and at another point, the cloak looked like trying to strangle White. The dancer displayed both masculine and feminine shades very accurately, leaving the audience awestruck. I remember being enthralled at how quickly Paul White would make a transition from being this dynamic powerful man, to his graceful elegant lady full of poise.

I think White was seminude throughout the performance to emphasize his movements. He is an extremely graceful and flexible dancer and to enunciate both masculine and feminine traits can be challenging and this is probably why White was seminude. This helped me to relate to the discussion we had in class on masculinity and femininity and the conflicting forces of nature surrounding them. This also helped me have a much broader perspective on the dance on the whole.  

The ending was on another very interesting benchmark and this point according to me made complete sense to the performance and the title of the show. An oracle literally means a priest or priestess acting as a medium through whom advice or prophecy was sought from the gods in classical antiquity. The ending showed a brief moment of the stage being dark and desolate, and then a sudden strong flash of white light focused entirely on the dancer and the jump he made. The stage was once again desolate and dark and this is how the show wrapped up. This particular scene kind of left an imprint on me. It justified the title as it seemed a little supernatural, surreal yet extremely fantastic. I cannot think of a better ending to this show.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed the performance. The Oracle was everything the synopsis had to say, and Tankard indeed beautifully explores the conflicting forces of nature and man, masculinity and femininity, violence and nurturing, strength and vulnerability.

[goodcirculation]

Studio Dance

Payal Vazirani

1.     To the land – Throughout this dance, I was reminded of various things. At first, the simple yet beautifully done stage had a mystic feel to it. It made me curious as to what the dance was going to be all about. Initially, as the dancers progressed onto the stage their outfits were very suggestive of some sort of natural/organic origin. The first few movements made me feel as though the dancers were trying to reach out to something, more like reaching out to the sky or the abode. The entire dance was subdivided into small groups, each group performing different acts and trying to convey something different in their own seemingly simple manner. I really enjoyed how well the dance floor and the space was utilized to the maximum. It reminded me of how we keep trying to make use of space in different ways during our own dance class. Slowly, the dance descended into something that seemed like a fight between tribes for the acquisition of land. This is probably one of the few times I felt connected to the title and very soul of the act. There were numerous aspects I enjoyed about the dance, the simple tattered yet suggestive outfits, the demarcation between the dancers into their various groups (possibly different tribes) and each group performing a different act, the simple movements ranging from the dancers just starting at each other, falling into the arms of other dancers, and sometimes making patterns and formations with their hands and trying to enact animals. All in all, the dance made good use of space and the dancers displayed a very elaborate relationship between their bodies and the space they made use of.

2.     Shake Shake – This was the most interesting dance of the lot due to a variety of reasons. It made extensive use of props and especially rolls of white paper. The dance started with a roll of white paper placed in front of two dancers and it being cut by another in pauses to reveal the dancers behind the sheets of paper. I liked how the female dancers were draped in white. There was also a fan placed at one corner of the stage.  There was minimal music in the entire dance. All the music that was there, was “created” by the dancers and the props. The tearing of the paper, the sudden humming sounds created by the dancers, the sound made by the fan, the tapping of their feet. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of creating music. It was something new and innovative. The continual humming sound created by one of the dancers was a little odd but suggested a mode of communication that was possibly used by her. Infact, the extensive use of props, the aggressive dances(which almost seemed like a face off) all were a method used by each of the dancers to communicate; maybe to the audience or amongst themselves. Hence, I enjoyed how there was a this lingering mystical touch to this dance, which kept me curious till the very end. The dance was open to interpretation and that made me arrive at many different conclusions.

3.     FOR(ever) – The title of this dance caught my attention so throughout, I was looking forward to this dance the most. The dance had different images displayed in the background – of the ocean, desert, wind and other different immortal aspects of nature. The female dancers in this dance wore boots instead of being barefoot like the other dances, this could be maybe to signify the frozen ice (also shown in the backdrop). The different sounds – of the waves, winds, sand suggested the everlasting elements of nature. The images and the sounds put together justified the title of the dance to an extent. This dance had a lot of visual appeal to it. It made me feel joyful and happy, and appreciate nature and its belongings. Throughout the dance, the dancers displayed different emotions. I vaguely remember how one of the dancers was trying to get past the other two dancers and them not allowing her to. This was maybe significant of stopping forces in nature and human life that always hinder us from doing something and progressing towards our goal. The dance was different from the rest as it had more visual and aesthetic appeal compared to the rest. A soothing feeling remained in me much after this act was over. Also, the movements performed by the dancers were more ballet-like rather than contemporary.

On a side note, unlike the last two performances in attended at the Krannert, the studio dance had a completely different seating arrangement; one that made me feel much closer to the dancers, their work, their emotions and the performance in general. I could clearly see the dances and enjoy all the work put in by the dancers and appreciate it to the fullest.