The Friday List: From dance therapy workshop to lecture on slave trade history, your weekly calendar of virtual events

Compiled by Aishwarya Sahasrabudhe

The number of COVID-19 cases is increasing every day and restrictions are being put in place yet again to reduce public gatherings and time spent outdoors. Once again, it is essential to follow the new rules in the book set forth to curb the spread of the coronavirus. A shift to the online medium in the past year has made our leisure time a largely virtual experience, aiding us to be productive from the safety and comfort of home. So now more than ever, as we live through a comeback of the more stringent of restrictions, the landscape of our engagements and weekly dosages of entertainment continues to be moderated digitally, through the screen.

Every Friday, we'll bring you a curated list of online experiences — performances, talks, tours, screenings — to mark on your weekly calendar. On this week's #FridayList: a workshop on the therapeutic elements of Indian dance, a talk on gender pay gap and SonyLIV's Leonardo.

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— Workshops

A thoroughly fun and interesting workshop coming up this week is all about learning the basics of illustration and creating beautiful and imaginative seascapes for children. Brought about by AVID Learning,  Coral Woman: A Sketching and Book Illustration Workshop will be an interactive session hosted by children's book illustrator, Zainab Tambawalla in which she will guide participants on how to illustrate coral reefs for an educational children's book. The workshop is part of a collaborative project that will culminate in an illustrated book and a short film. Through the workshop, participants can glimpse into the illustrator's creative processes, breakdown the character design and most of all, contribute art and artworks made in the session to the design of the book. The workshop promises to be an exciting activity and is definitely a must attend for amateur artists.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 10 April (11 am)

A two-day long workshop is set to explore the relationship between dance and therapy, the importance of mindful movement vocabulary in Indian philosophy and its connection with the spirit. Therapeutic Potential of Indian Dance, brought about by Sahapedia will dive into the therapeutics embedded in our classical and folk dance styles to find out how they foster a connection between mind and body and enable healing processes. Psychologist and arts-based therapist Anubha Doshi will be accompanied by a pioneer of the dance movement therapy, Tripura Kashyap to lead the workshop that finds a way to address our innermost qualms using movement. For dancers well familiar with the therapeutic aspect of practicing art and for those wanting to learn how to navigate dance forms at the psychological plane, this workshop is the place to be.

To know more and register, visit Sahapedia's Facebook page.

When: 10 April and 11 April (11.30 am – 1.30 pm)

The Art of Mindfulness is a four-week long workshop curated by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art that flags off this weekend with an introductory talk on the meditative effects of art. A highly immersive and in depth experience spread across four sessions, this workshop is about discovering the hidden potential in colours and canvases to invigorate our spirits and calm our minds. Hosted by the art-based therapy practitioner Vanashree Ghate, this workshop is yet another space where participants can come and explore what it means to arrive at a more balanced state of mind, manage time and energy better simply using a few techniques that have the potential to transform our frame of mind. Through the workshop series, Ghate will discuss several ideas around developing mental resilience, discovering interdependence and finding compassion and joy in our journey towards mindfulness.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 9 April to 30 April (5.30 pm – 7.30 pm)

— Virtual ballet

Royal Opera House will be livestreaming Weill and Brecht's The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel this weekend, a satirical opera which is a commentary on the gender politics of our times. Directed by Isabelle Kettle, the ballet has been created in a way that celebrates the medium of the screen, rather than the stage and reimagines the piece by drawing on some contemporary hip-hop, dance and theatre movement. The Seven Deadly Sins is a work spread across seven scenes which revolves around depicting the crisis of femininity. This will be followed by Mahogonny Songspiel, a concentrated dramatic and musical encapsulation of the rise and fall of an imaginary city. Watch what is sure to be a very engrossing spectacle brought about especially for the screen.

To know more and stream the event, visit Royal Opera House's Facebook page

When: 10 April

— Talks

Gender pay gap in industrial and corporate sectors has widened according to a recent survey, which calls into question the repeated instances of women missing out on raises and promotions and the reasons behind this phenomenon. To decode what equal pay stands for and how this income gap can be bridged, Sipping Thoughts has organised the talk, Equal Pay: Facing the Facts and Bridging the Gap. Co-founder of the start-up SALT, Shinjini Kumar and founder of WiT-ACE, Anuranjita Kumar will be in conversation with Sneha Boobna as these industry experts decipher the whys of gender pay inequality and some measures that can be taken to overcome the issue.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 10 April (4 pm)

An upcoming talk curated by the Harvard Art Museums discusses certain artworks curated in the Netherlands and the United States of America which are designed to become a rising call to museums to recognise the relationship of their collections with slavery and present day racial injustice. Exhibiting Slavery and Representing Black Lives — Art Museums and the Legacies of the Dutch Slave Trade is the first of a four-part program that explores the efforts of art spaces to present complete narratives and artistic perspectives on slavery and its legacies.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 9 April

A conversation between author Rochelle Potkar and interlocuter Yumna Hari Singh dives into the former's latest book, Bombay Hangovers, a collection of short stories around race, caste and religion in the city of Mumbai. Constellating Chaos is a session organised by the Bangalore International Centre in which Potkar will talk about her writing processes as she fleshes out Mumbai's addas, gullys and small crossroads to invoke the motivations and life arcs of her characters. She will also zoom in on her work as a poet, her foray into screenwriting and the questions and inspirations that drive her art. Through a poetic exchange with Singh, narrative and curatorial powers will be brought to life in a session that promises to be as informative as it will be entertaining.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 11 April (6 pm)

From a discussion on Bombay Hangovers to SonyLIV's new series Leonardo and Netflix's superhero comedy Thunder Force, a list of virtual engagements for this week.

— Virtual poetry reading

This Saturday, as part of its weekly virtual poetry reading, Prakriti Foundation will be hosting Arjun Bali, who has been writing in English, Hindustani and Bambaiya. The poet, filmmaker and translator has presented his works across the world stage and will be reciting some of his most prolific verses on Poetry with Prakriti's online edition which takes audiences through the works of many well-known poets. Bali will also be discussing the nature of his poetry, the themes it explores and his inspirations through the course of the session.

To know more and register, click here.

When: 10 April (7 pm)

— Streaming this week

An upcoming film on Amazon Prime Video will make you double over with laughter when a wanted fraudster named Makhwana, escapes the eye of the police by donning on the costume of a gorilla. In Hello Charlie, featuring Jackie Shroff and Aadar Jain along with Rajpal Yadav, this disguised gorilla becomes the responsibility of the eponymous Charlie who is asked to deliver the caged animal to a circus. A series of errors and adventure follows as those on the hunt for the conman try to discover his whereabouts and Charlie, until now a complete loser tries to do perfectly the one job assigned to him. Tune in to watch this comedy for a good dose of laughs and giggles.

When: 9 April

Where: Amazon Prime Video

The superhero comedy Thunder Force, arriving on Netflix this Friday features two extraordinary actors, Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer who play estranged childhood friends. The two are living in a world where supervillains abound and when one of them finds a way to give ordinary people superpowers, they reunite to fight against evil forces. Loads of adventure, some mischief and absolute fun are all to be expected from this crime-fighting duo as the two women in their forties go about the city try to understand their superpowers while working towards helping their community.

When: 9 April

Where: Netflix

Leonardo is an exciting new drama dropping on SonyLIV this weekend which tells the story of the brilliant Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci. The historical drama follows the artist's extraordinary life, the works that made him famous, the stories and secrets hidden behind his most well-known paintings and the tormented soul of an artist obsessed with attaining perfection. In eight episodes, the series also depicts a murder investigation da Vinci finds himself embroiled in and how he navigates betrayals, forbidden love and friendship in his quest to become an unparalleled master. Featuring Aidan Turner in the lead along with Freddie Highmore of The Good Doctor fame, the show is definitely worth binging on this weekend.

When: 9 April

Where: SonyLIV

Coming up on the streaming platform of Book My Show is the Anne Hathaway-starrer The Witches, which follows the story of an orphaned boy living with his grandmother, both of whom find themselves surrounded by witches of the most notorious order. After the death of his parents, the young lad and his grandmother living in rural Alabama encounter some deceptive and diabolical witches and decide at once to move away to a seaside resort. But fate has other plans, for right in this little idyll, the Grand High Witch has summoned her followers from across the world to carry out her bidding. Watch what is sure to be a quirky, dark fantasy, a perfect fit for a spooky night in.

When: 9 April

Where: BookMyShow Stream

Also read — Coronavirus outbreak: A database of books, performances, courses available online in these times of social distancing