Devika Chotoe

How do you cultivate empathy and a loving perception for a father who is the emblem of toxic masculinity?

This presentation of Dil Mein during Come Together Festival is a work-in-progress of a music theatre production. Dil Mein is a quest of a young woman for her deceased father, whom she only knows from the silence of photo albums, from hearsay and especially from the stories that depict her father as the emblem of toxic masculinity. Through poetic contemplations, storytelling, dance and songs, the main character tries to give space to the conflicting emotions that emerge and to form a relationship with her father that she now wants to define for herself.

Artistically, Dil Mein is Chotoe’s personal quest for translating the notions of estrangement, ancestry and grief into hybrid aesthetics that tap into her background in Odissi, Waacking, Vogue, House dance, spoken word and playwriting. Expect a multidisciplinary performance with a new take on Bollywood music.

Note: even though the text is in Dutch, language is still no problem.

Text, directing: Devika Chotoe
Performers: Lakshmi Gajadin, Amisha Kumra, Dizzi Geetha
Music: Dizzi Geetha
Producers: Nikki Kracht, Bijlmer Parktheater
Special thanks to: Veem House, Floor Cremers, Francesca Lazzeri

Devika Chotoe (1992) (she/her) is a theatre maker, playwright, poet and film journalist. Her trajectory across different disciplines (dance, spoken word, research, visual arts, theatre and film) resulted in a hybrid practice where she fully embraces the crosspollination of different disciplines within her artistic practice.

Making heartfelt work is her biggest aim. Next to that, Chotoe oftentimes wonders how art can contribute to societal change and to the bridging of different worldviews. Since the personal is always political, working with autofiction and with cultural references that relate to her Indo-Surinamese and queer identity, is a way for Chotoe to question, subvert (and hopefully) change dominant paradigms. Chotoe graduated from the School for New Dance Development (AHK) in 2022 and furthermore also writes about film for de Volkskrant and Filmkrant.

@devikachotoe
www.devikachotoe.com