Fight for Flight, a dance double bill by Riya Mandal and Joshua Sailo

Phurrr... ​[Riya] and ​Factor Y​ [Joshua] are contemporary choreographic propositions exploring the aspects of impulse and vulnerability. These works are a glimpse into the world of the respective performers. Their work is an exploration of them as individuals and dance acts as a tool to express and share their questions, confusions, self realisations and conflicts. The work urges audience and even at some point nudges them to look within themselves to ask similar questions. These solos are raw in the form that they are represented but mindful and intricate in their approach and craft, therefore challenging the boundaries of what essentially is defined a contemporary dance performance.

Phurrr...a sonic utterance, even though it fails to be registered in any dictionary, yet it is constantly expressed to refer to flights, escapes, breakaways, etc.

But why is ​Phurrr ​ for the one who possesses it? For the one who embodies it, is ‘Phurrr’ an urge, an inspiration, a yearning, a longing or could it be perhaps be an overwhelming desire, an impetus libido?

The performance investigates, ‘impulse’, the “impulse that dares to aspire” and what concedes f the impulse doesn’t meet its’ own aspiration....

Factor-Y is an embodied research on how male bodies pass through the factory of society's assembly line to internalize, uphold, or fall victim to the constraints of 'masculinity' that we shape collectively from boyhood to adulthood. Using irony, humour, and theatricality, various characters emerge to challenge the limitations of the 'Act like a Man', putting male exhibitionism on the spotlight as it searches for attention, power, and control while also revealing the cost of hiding behind the veil of performed masculinities.