The Anupallavi of Tamil song "Tuyil kolla ..." is addressed to the sea: 

உயிர்கள் பல உன்னுள் உறைந்து நிறைவு பெறும்
புயலும் கலத்ததாலோ செயலும் நிறைந்ததாலோ

The living beings in you will reach fullness
 Is it the storm that disturbs you? Is it the activity of human beings? 

The actress-dancer Sivaselvi Sarkar was lulled by this ancient song in Pondicherry, in southern India. It is by finding an archive of this musical composition that she decides to create a dance play in the Bharata-nāṭyam style based on the sung poem and send it to me in 2020 so that I can perform it in my turn as part of Bharata-nāṭyam recitals. How is the sea staged? What issues emerge from the song’s "living beings," represented on stage by shells, aquatic plants, sea snakes, and fish? How is the poem, which evokes the life of beings ("uyir-kal" in Tamil), developed by singing and by the scenic artist who "embodies" the fluidity of water, the movements of living beings from the sea? How did Sivaselvi Sarkar transmit this corporeality to me? This paper proposes to answer these questions in three parts, which correspond to the poietic stages of creation in the Bharata-nāṭyam style: the first will focus on the text in Tamil, dedicated to the sea; the second, on the musical score; finally, the last one will highlight the interweaving of textual, musical and scenic elements of an ecopoetics of the sea.

https://vimeo.com/1128307907?fl=pl&fe=vl

https://vimeo.com/1128308546?fl=pl&fe=vl

https://vimeo.com/1128309346?fl=pl&fe=vl

original paper (to be continued) in french

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