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Monday Mixtape: Choreographer Parijat Desai

Music hardly exists in a vacuum. Like an interconnected web, each tune, each track released to the world both came from somewhere and leads to something else. At Aslan Media, we recognize that very few albums come to us without influence, and it’s those artists that it’s those artists that walked the road before who helped shape the styles and expressions of the music artists we profile in this website today.

To show that music, in its purest form, is an expression that knows no physical, cultural, societal or economic boundaries, Aslan Media’s new monthly series called Monday Mixtape, profiles the tunes enjoyed by artists featured on this site. They share with us the tracks that inspire and influence who and where they are as music artists. The genres covered by these playlists are limitless, as are the artists they include, which can include those from countries outside the Middle East that carry universal messages found in every region of the world.

New York-based contemporary dance choreographer Parijat Desai (previously profiled by Aslan Media) is no stranger to music’s ability to move, both physically and melodically. “I feel like I’m working on three levels,” she says, “the music, the movement and dramatically. It kind of happens all at once.” Each of her dances comes out of a “two-prong conception,” she explains. “One is that I have really been motivated by music and love of a certain kind of music, then along with that, I develop a theme, or a theme comes to mind in relationship with that music… all of that leads to, how can I use the contemporary framework and the vocabularies at my disposal to respond to or evoke any aspects of these music?” From there she creates dances that her company mostly performs to live music, sometimes improvisational. “Once we set the structure [with the musicians],” she explains, “they’re the ones who are essentially composing live.”

For Desai, choreography is more than what looks good on stage; it's the driving force of dialogue between music and dance. And with dialogue comes a continuous renewal for interpretations and insight. “I would love to keep on developing each of my pieces,” she says. “They’re almost like areas of study that I’d love to keep continuing.”,/p>

Here is a sampling of the artists that inspire Parijat Desai and influence her choreography:

Arun Ramamurthy – Migration Patterns

Watch the video here

Samita Sinha – Voices

Watch the video here

Vijay Iyer – Galang

Watch the video here

Shweta Jhaveri – Heart of Darkness

Watch the video here

The Komimas – Shariah in the USA

Watch the video here

Swami – Electro Jungi

Watch the video here

Midival Punditz – Rebirth

Watch the video here

Natacha Atlas – Mon Ami La Rose

Watch the video here

Kiran Ahluwalia – Mustt Mustt

Watch the video here

*Photo credit: Shay Peretz, courtesy of Parijat Desai Dance Company

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