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Journeys of Faith
A Bharatanatyam Performance Based on the Book, Food & Faith
Artists
One click and your stove is on. Is the mundane routine of preparing food far removed from the sacred practices of ritual cooking?
Nirupama Vaidhyanathan’s dance theatre production is a page-to-stage adaptation of Shoba Narayan’s book, Food and Faith. The production involves theatrical storytelling and dance segments, tracing the fascinating history and legends associated with sacred foods across India.
Sacred spaces nurtured culinary traditions in the most unique way. In Amritsar, at the Golden Temple, serving in the langar, the free kitchen, is itself considered worship. What impact do monsoon rains have on the fasting traditions of priests in Udupi? How do medicinal herbs found in the hills around Palani influence the jam-like panchamritham that the temple is famous for? In Puri, when the cooks say a prayer to the Sun God and the Fire God before cooking, what is the ritualistic practice that they celebrate? In Kottarakkara, Kerala, how do unni appams tie the present to kings from the past?
Supported by:
Venue: Auditorium
Artists
Shoba Narayan
Shoba Narayan is an author, poet, podcaster and co-founder of Zapigo, an e-commerce platform in the celebration space. She is the author of eight books including “Food & Faith: a pilgrim’s journey through India.” As a journalist and columnist, she has written for national and international publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, Travel & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Hindustan Times, Mint Lounge, and others, covering travel, nature, culture, and food, winning a James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Food Writing, and a Pulitzer Fellowship along the way. A published poet, her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her lifelong goal is to get fit without exercising and lose weight without dieting.
Nirupama Vaidhyanathan
Nirupama Vaidhyanathan is a multifaceted dancer, writer, storyteller, and educator who has performed Bharatanatyam worldwide to critical acclaim. She has researched and presented three dance-theater productions: Tamizhin Kathai (The Story of Tamizh), tracing the language’s 2,500-year history; Whispers Along the Kaveri, on the growth of arts along the river; and Journeys of Faith, on sacred foods through narrative, music, and dance. A former editor of India Currents magazine, she has won writing awards from the San Francisco Press Club and California News Publishers Association, is a gold medalist in Journalism from India, and holds a Master’s in Communication from the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania.
