The quality of rhythm is the quality of life; however vitally the composer conceives his music, he must depend upon the performer to recreate it rhythmically.
5.47pm GMT We've found out what a gayageum is – a 12-stringed instrument that is placed upon the performer's lap and plucked.
The scripture Markandeya Purana says that if the ancestors are content with the shraddhas, they will bestow health, wealth, knowledge and longevity, and ultimately heaven and salvation (moksha) upon the performer.
But for me, the most visually magical productions are often those in which the stage is a blank canvas, waiting to be written upon by the performers who inhabit it.
Upon seeing this, the performers carry him completely off-stage, not out of spite or disdain, but simply because he has no reason to be a part of the piece anymore.
Minimalist music by Zoe Keating lent the dance a hypnotic desperation as the performers, upon rising, swayed rigidly back and forth, feet separated in a wide second position.
Soon, though, mechanized motions intrude upon the pastoral: one scene has the performers marching jerkily to a strict 4/4 beat, with tritones destabilizing the harmony.
Handsome, agile and supremely talented, the performers peel off layer upon layer of multi-coloured petticoats, whirling kilos of material around as if it were spun sugar.
Apart from, or together with, the claim that the new burlesque empowers women, the point that the performers most vehemently insist upon is that their occupation differs from stripping.
The ground rules upon entering are simple: "No exchanging numbers with the performers".
