Seem as they may as disparate units the arts are variously shaped to fit into each other to create a meaningful cumulative experience. Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop attempts to create such a common yet non-mainstream platform where the arts can interact and bring to us expressions of another kind.
As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations in 2002, Sapphire has initiated the LINK THE ARTS movement, a drive to bring together the arts in interesting commissioned and impromptu collaborations by bringing together artists of various disciplines through regular meets and discussions. The aim is to bring issues that bother all or most artistes out in the open, and in brainstorming sessions exchange ideas, develop solutions, form a larger and more meaningful art fraternity, which can provide encouragement and support to budding artists and which can reach out to educate and create new audiences.
The FIRST session of this movement was held at the Oxford Bookstore-gallery in August 2002 with the world premiere of “Walls” presented by Sapphire followed by a panel discussion on “ The Liberation of the Alternative Arts in our time”.“Walls” is an on-site presentation exploring the technique of contact resistance to delve into an intrinsic narrative of compulsion and repulsion. While artists, media persons and art critics on the panel like Rita Bhimani, PR Person, India, Anindita Sarbadhikari , filmmaker, India, Tapati Choudhurie, art critic, India, Joseph Gonzales, Head of the Dept, Dance, ASK, Malaysia, Brynell Jameson, Dept of theatre, Pittsburgh University, USA and Urmimala Sarkar Munshi, Dancer, India questioned and debated the topic of discussion, the audience also joined in with their ideas and opinions.

The SECOND session of this movement was held at Caffeine, the coffee shop in November 2002.
The evening began with a collaborative presentation between Sapphire presenting Walls, a site-specific presentation using the natural wall of the venue as theme, prop and support to depict our contemporary lives and an artist Arnab Banerjee reacting to Walls on canvas. This was followed by a discussion on the need of alternative spaces of performance and whether that could lead to the birth of a new audience for the arts. The evening concluded by a music jam session featuring fusion outfit Black Coffee and other guest musicians.

The THIRD session held on June 2003 was made possible because of the kind support extended by the American Center to the growth of the contemporary arts in Kolkata. The evening began with the presentation of an excerpt from Sapphire’s new production ‘SDT’, a celebration of pure dance design against space and time. This was followed by a CD ROM presentation of Sapphire’s official website www.sapphirecreations.com launched on the same day. After a short break a direct video conference between US and Indian panels of choreographers, critics, arts managers and media persons commenced, exchanging views on the concept of LINK THE ARTS and the parallels and differences between the condition of the arts in the two countries which could provide valuable clues on how to take this movement to integrate the arts even further.

US panel: Robert Moses, Artistic Director ( Robert Moses Dance Company, San Francisco) ; Margaret Jenkins, Choreographer (Margaret Jenkins Dance Company,San Francisco) ;and Octavio Roca,Chief Dance Critic (San Francisco Chronicle).
India panel: Jayabrata Chatterjee,Writer/Novelist/Film-maker ; Dr.Madhuchanda Chatterjee,Executive Director(Anamika Kala Sangam) ; and Sudarshan Chakravorty,Artistic Director (Sapphire Creations Dance Workshop,Kolkata)
The FOURTH session was a curtain raiser and reactionary session for the premiere of Positive Lives, in Kolkata in June 2004 at Goethe Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan, in work-in-progress form as a test to invite constructive criticism and response from a select audience consisting of AIDS and human rights activists, PLWHA, artists, media and representatives from government, voluntary and corporate bodies.

Positive Lives is a dance-visual montage presentation that tells the story of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). The production is a joint initiative of Sapphire, an experimental dance company; SPARSHA, a support agency for PLWHA and their friends; and SAATHII, an agency that provides capacity building support to HIV/AIDS service providers.

Contemporary encapsulates the new, the recent, the present, the happening, the real. Tagore in his works and in his imagination will remain evergreen and always contemporary. The FIFTH session of LINK THE ARTS at G.D Birla Sabhaghar in May 2005, therefore brought together scholars and artistes to discuss ‘How meaningful and relevant are contemporary artistic adaptations of Tagore?’

The speakers moderated by Mr Barun Das were
Mrinal Sen, film maker
Debojyoti Mishra, musician
Dr Partha Ghose, scientist and connoisseur
Dr Sruti Banerjee, scholar and dancer
And others this was followed by the Kolkata premiere of ‘Rituranga-A Symphony of Seasons’ by Sapphire.


LINK THE ARTS is about breaking through barriers, not to create conflicts, not to move away from tradition, not to create divides but bridge the gaps between people, genres, cultures and countries. In its 13th year Sapphire beckons all to come forward and join hands.
Come let us LINK THE ARTS…………
LINK THE ARTS - The Movement