CHRISTOPHER STREET PIER/HARMATTAN THEATER/OCT.2

Harmattan Theater performed Mannahatta Yatra today at Christopher Street Pier. Marking Gandhi's birthday, Harmattan Theater performed a walking journey from Christopher Street Pier to the South of Hudson River Park along the waterfront. Sea Salt, Hudson River water, the Ekhtara and Cymbals were the props of the nomadic theater piece. The philosophical imperative behind Mannahatta Yatra is the idea of walking as a means of reclaiming territory. Walking along the 2009 Manhattan waterline is a way of citing the 1609 waterline, which is now hidden by landfill. The use of salt is to both signify the importance of salt in anti-colonial struggles, of which Mannahatta is implicated, as well as the symbolic shift away from the colonial references of the Dutch in Manhattan. The Dutch East India Company, of which much celebration was invoked in September 2009, traded in salt along with other spices, in their colonial outposts. Salt is a metaphor for cleansing, transformation, symbolic rerouting. The principles of Tantric Trance performance as well as the physical practice of endurance in Marina Abramovic's work were inspirations for this environmental performance. The performers in this hour long performance comprised of: James Cascaito, Carole Nicoli-Smith, Victor Marshall, Ariel, Jose de Jesus, Dil and May Joseph. The piece was choreographed and directed by May Joseph.