UC Irvine

Four Quartets is a series of four poems by British poet T.S. Eliot that explores themes of life, love, and spirituality. The poems abstractly follow the journey of life in different phases, with recurring motifs of time, dance, cyclicity, and death.As an Indian Classical dancer, I am keenly interested in Eliot’s lifelong connections with both early Modern dance and Indian spirituality, and am eager to investigate the manifestation of these connections in his writings. Specifically, I recontextualize the motif of spirituality in Indian Classical dance forms, particularly Odissi, and define the term “still point” through multiple contexts, including linguistics, dance, and mysticism to inform my choreographic process. Through my research and choreography, I explore the themes of dance and spirituality which are embedded in Eliot’s work and visualize them through the media of Indian Classical and Contemporary dance.