Terence Lewis isolated himself from all social distractions and technological devices to prepare for his act The Kamshet Project 2.0. The ace choreographer says the process was “curative as well as cathartic”.

Lewis will perform The Kamshet Project 2.0 along with his dance troupe at the National Centre for the Performing Arts here on Friday. He confined himself at a farmhouse in Kamshet in Maharashtra with nine dancers, read a statement.

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“I took nine of my dancers to the farmhouse and isolated them from all aspects of life – be it social, familial or any aspects. So barring their sexuality and religion, we would question everything in our personality,” Lewis said.

“Even I underwent this process along with the 9 dancers and we used to eat very simple food, sleep by 8 p.m. and get up at 5 in the morning, watch the sunrise, do yoga, swim in the lake, do household chores for the people in the village and just connect with ourselves. So it was a very curative as well as cathartic process,” he added.

Lewis runs Terence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company in Mumbai and specializes in Indian folk, contemporary and neo-classical dance forms. He has choreographed international stage shows, Bollywood shows, Broadway western musicals and music videos.

The Kamshet Project 2.0 is a hard hitting piece of dance theatre that explores the darker side of human nature.

How was the experience of living in isolation?

“Initially, the nine dancers thought in these nine days they will get to learn some high level of dancing as they didn’t know about the plan. So, every day they used to be surprised to see one new teacher who was a psychic tarot card reader, hypnotist, counsellor, energy healer.

“These kind of people from their own art got us to dig deeper inside to our own selves. This was the process to empty ourselves where we meet our feelings and the animal within us. Not only that but also look at the aspiration side, the person we wanted to be.”

Talking about the act, he said: “The Kamshet Project 2.0 – the reason why its called 2.0 is because we premiered this a year and half ago and structurally it was just bare bones.

“Kamshet 2.0 version is an updated refined version and it was this version that was presented and it had its international premiere at the Vienna International dance festival this year in August.”