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Photo / Foto; Nenad Milosevic

THE SHADOWS Legendary heroes, ancient rituals and eternal truths concerning the struggle of light and darkness from an old Balinese legend about Calonarang, come to life in this dance drama that juxtaposes lyricism of intimate ambitions and dreams of love with wild, ritualistic energy of the reality that punishes a woman's attempt to rise above the system and strictly defined social roles. The expressive and energetic dance of an excellent all-woman cast, combines, in a unique way, elements of Balkan, Balinese, African, and contemporary dance, as well as aikido and capoeira. Powerful music, stylistically diverse and with an array of emotional tonality, leads the audience into the world of Shadows, evoked from the past to tell us a tale that warns and comforts, teaches and pries, encourages and inspires while confronting us with our own limitations. Calonarang is the queen of Bali, the follower of Durga, Goddess of death, and a widow notorious for her magical power. Her beautiful daughter Ratna is in love with Airlangga, the East Javanese Prince, but the Javanese royal family forbids the young prince to marry the daughter of the witch. Offended, Calonarang casts the spell and spreads the epidemics, famine and death throughout the kingdom. Ratna turns against her mother and steals the Book of magic on which rests the queen's magical power. This manual of black magic and symbol of evil, when read in the opposite direction, becomes a book of white magic and symbol of good. The ensuing combat turns into a cosmic battle in which the innocent are sacrificed, but which leaves no winner. The good and the evil are just withdrawn into their boundaries, and the balance is restored. This Hindu legend presents the world as the constant battle amongst the opposing forces. The Shadows explores the old tale from a woman's perspective, as it examines the way the Woman is defined in her various roles, as a mother, daughter, lover, nurturer, destroyer, servant, goddess, priestess, and the repository of sacred knowledge. Calonarang ritual performance in Bali is believed to have exorcist qualities, it aims to counteract and neutralize the supernatural power of black magic always present in the community. MUDRA THEATRE Mudra Theatre is an independent dance theatre company that explores dance as a language that crosses geographical, political and cultural borders, and searches for the communication between dance forms from various cultures. The members of Mudra are trained in several traditional dance forms and forms of martial arts from various cultures, as well as in contemporary western dance techniques. Dance drama The Shadows came out of the research project Dance, Language, identity, which explores dance as language and searches for the possible modes of communication among different world cultures. IVANA AŠKOVIĆ Ivana Ašković is a theatre director, performer and choreographer. She graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade, and completed her MFA and doctoral studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA. Between 1994 and 1998 she taught acting at the Department ofTheatre & Dance at the same university. Ivana spent twelve years studying and performing Balinese dance and music, including four years in Bali, Indonesia. She directed and performed in numerous dance and theatre productions, lead workshops and seminars in the USA, Indonesia, Italy and Serbia & Montenegro. For her academic and artistic work she has received numerous grants and awards from govern-