(50 Minutes/duet)

Celebrating the power and beauty of abstraction, and the transformative experience that Bhattacharya and Laberge-Côté have undergone in their creative relationship over the last decade, Akshongay embraces the creators’ commitment to universality through individuality, and gives voice to the powerful shared artistic vision of this unique duo. An excerpt of the work was presented in 2009 by the Contemporary Choreography in Indian Dance Festival (Toronto) and the full work will premiere in Danceworks Mainstage Series (Toronto) in the fall of 2012.

Nova Bhatacharya and Louis Laberge-Côté’s first work The Yirri Birri Birds of the Yago Bago (2003) premiered at Dusk Dances, Withrow Park in 2003 and was described in The Toronto Star as “by turns hilarious and graceful…a comic opera of an exotic mating ritual.” The work was remounted for Harbourfront’s Gobsmacked Festival (2003), the Power of Place Festival (2006), toured to Quebec City as part of Dusk Dances 2006 tour and was presented by Young Centre/Luminato’s New Waves Festival in 2008. As part of the 2007 Dusk Dances tour it was performed in Chatham, Kingston, Toronto, Haliburton, Mindemoya, and Deep River in front of an estimated 4,700 people.

Commissioned by Dance Ontario for DanceWeekend 2006, the pair created Lingua Franca, which went onto be presented at The Toronto International Dance Festival and the Kalanidhi International Dance Festival. “Nova Bhattacharya and Louis Laberge-Côté are about as good as contemporary dance gets” claimed Paula Citron, “a silent conversation of styles: modern dance meets Bharatanatyam in sensuous hybrid movements” said Susan Walker of The Toronto Star and The Dance Current’s Kathleen Smith pronounced “These two magnificent performers describe two solitudes, each in their separate corners, who gradually reveal a growing awareness of each other. The work culminates in a stately court dance in which the dancers perform some of the same movements but with relentless individuality.”

Of their 2006 Dusk Dances’ commission, Romeo and Juliet before parting… Michael Crabb of the National Post said “It was left to ace co-choreographer/ performers Nova Bhattacharya and Louis Laberge-Côté to raise the artistic ante several rungs with their wickedly sly duet” in which “various dance conventions were cleverly referenced in an anti-pas de deux overlaid with tinges of sexual domination and fluid gender.” The work inspired filmmaker Jay Field, to develop a Bravo! Fact with the artists, and toured with Dusk Dances in 2008 for 20 performances in Chatham, Vancouver, Haliburton, Kingston, Deep River and Mindemoya.

In 2009 they previewed an excerpt of their new collaboration Akshongay at the Contemporary Choreography in Indian Dance Festival (Toronto). Sunil Kothari (Narthaki, India) praised the work for its “sheer brilliance and innovation”.