Caroline & Abhilash

In January 2005, a second stage takes the form of a residency in the artist community of Adishakti. The choreographer and his performer, Caroline Blanc, reconnect with Abhilash Ningappa, trained in the martial art Kallaripayattu, and met the previous year on road during a solo tour with the company Attakalari directed by Jayachandran Palazhy in Bangalore. In delicate spaces conceived by the actress-director Veenapani and artists in her entourage, the Alliance Française of Pondicherry finds the ideal place for an artistic exchange and the subtle beginnings of a creation, sheltered from the scattered effervescence of Indian life.

Over the four weeks of working together deep cultural differences are revealed: relationships between man-woman and choreographer-dancer are full of wonder and revelation, and often provoke laughter. The duo Caroline & Abhilash explores an "Impressionistic encounter," colored reflections of this shared experience. Kelemenis writes choreography dealing with discovery and necessarily about the love between 2 people. The marked contrast between the two dancers’ skin color highlights the approaches and the gyrations, the embracing and the curiosity the choreographer manifests in writing this duet.

The Alliances Françaises of Pondicherry, Bangalore and Delhi organize the tour of this program in January 2005. In the first part, 3 solos of "subjective portraits" are a means of unveiling themselves to the others who are culturally different but engaged in the same craft.

Caroline & Abhilash is the preparatory study and the first draft of a duet that opens the show for 4 female dancers in July of the same year: Aphorismes géométriques.