Prime

Prime by Avantika Bahl is a multi-disciplinary contemporary dance performance that looks at the relationship between movement and the ageing body.
Bringing together a group of seniors, all above the age of 60, who have had a long term relationship with dance, this performance looks at deconstructing remnants of a past movement practice in an older body. The ensemble of eight performers brings together a diverse group—across dance forms, stage experience, and learning journeys.
In dance, age is often imagined as a cut-off point, beyond which a performing career seems impossible. Yet it is precisely the elderly body that carries decades of wisdom, memory, and lived experience. Prime therefore, challenges the social currency of age and asks: what does it truly mean to be in one’s prime? Is it defined by youth at its peak, or by being at one’s fullest—at any stage of life? The full length work is accompanied by installations by Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty and film by Sruti Visweswaran.

Watch eight incredible performers over 60 turn time, memory, and movement into something powerful, witty, and unexpected. Prime flips the idea of ageing on its head, proving that “prime” isn’t about youth, but about fullness, joy, and lived experience.

Team
Choreographer & Producer: Avantika Bahl 
Rehearsal Director: Shruti Maria Datar
Sound Designer: Rahul Nadkarni and Nikhil Narendra
Costume Designer: Karishma Acharya
Installation Artists: Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty
Filmmaker: Sruti Visweswaran
Dramaturg and Light Designer: Arghya Lahiri
Dramaturg for Solo: Sunayana Shetty
Final Song Composition: Het Sanghvi
Location Sound (Film): Nebu George
Additional Camera (Film): Udit Khurana
Sound Operation: Sona Bajaj
Interns: Kashish Shah, Vidushi D’Souza and Sona Bajaj
Production Consultant: Spriha Nakhare
Production managers: Eden Pereira and Sonakshi Amitabh
Content Design: Surabhi Kim Andrade
Photography: Mayank Sharma and Surabhi Kim Andrade
Cast: Faredoon Bhujwala, Francis Cardoso, Jhelum Paranjape, Manuella Cardoso, Saraswati Devdas, Sunila Ashok, Venkateswaran Akileswaran, Venkatesh Iyer