MargaM
“The transition from human dance to sculpture was a beautiful shift.”
Put on a headset. Enter a South Indian temple. Let a 2,000-year-old dance tradition guide you from the threshold to the inner sanctum.
MargaM is a short virtual reality experience created by British-Indian dance artist Divya Kasturi, developed with a team of leading digital collaborators including volumetric capture specialists and creative technologists. It guides audiences in and through Bharatanatyam - one of the world's oldest classical dance forms, born in the temples of South India, and carrying with it histories of devotion, resistance and survival.
Inside the headset, you look freely in every direction — taking in the temple's architecture, watching the dancer's gestures up close, and moving with an original soundscape of voice, music and song that holds the whole experience together. It is not a film you watch from a seat. It is a world you are held inside.
Bharatanatyam has always been more than performance. It carries devotion, resistance, and histories that were suppressed and nearly lost. MargaM was made in that spirit - to open these spaces up, to bring this art form to audiences who might never otherwise encounter it, and to honour the women whose dancing kept it alive.
No dance knowledge needed. No VR experience required. Just put on the headset and let it take you.
Hosted and facilitated by the DKC team. Suitable for ages 12 and up.
Access: step-free access (flat floor required, no barriers). A chair is available for anyone who needs to sit during the experience. Wheelchair uses can access the experience. The work can be experienced visually only, without relying on sound
There are 30min bookable slots across the day for up to 2 people, as follows:
10.30-11.00am
11.00-11.30am
11.40-12.10pm
12.10-12.40pm
12.50-1.20pm
1.20-1.50pm
2.00-2.30pm
2.30-3.00pm
3.10-3.40pm
3.40-4.10pm
4.30-5.00pm
Content warning: The headset blocks most external sound and involves some movement and head turning, which may not suit those prone to motion sickness.
Divya Kasturi is a cultural trailblazer in dance whose career spans continents and disciplines. For over a decade she has blended the traditions of Bharatanatyam with cutting-edge technology alongside performing exquisite classical work, with credits including Maestro Ilaiyaraaja, Sir Paul McCartney and Simon McBurney, and a groundbreaking fusion of 3D hologram technology with classical dance.
Her work spans performance, Carnatic music, choreography, teaching, curation and international outreach, with significant impact on young people and the dance community in Hertfordshire. She is a current recipient of a Time and Space Commission with Sadler's Wells, and her other credits include QuestLab artist with Studio Wayne McGregor, Classical Intensive Choreographer Observer with Akram Khan Company, performer in Complicite's A Disappearing Number, and visiting faculty and choreographer at London Contemporary Dance School and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Presented in partnership with Dreamy Place Festival