Oddlab: Deviant Octopus

Content note: This showing contains female nudity.

In Deviant Octopus, dancer Jasmine Yadav invites audiences to witness the emergence of a shape-shifting creature. Through a choreography built around clothing - slipping into it, getting tangled in it, removing it - the body moves through states of exposure, concealment, fear, and release.

At the centre of the piece is a question: what happens when a body stops trying to be appropriate? As movement grows more instinctive and expansive, Jasmine's body becomes something unstable and alive: part human, part animal, part monster.

Presented as part of Oddlab, a space at Oddbird space where experimental work finds an audience, this showing also aims to experiment with proximity between performer and viewer. Objects, gaze, and shared tension may become part of the choreography itself.

Choreography and Performance: Jasmine Yadav

Sound Design: Surbhi Mittal (pale blue dotter)

Artistic Collaborator and Witness: Mandeep Raikhy

Costume Stylist: Srishti Aneja

Light Design: Bharavi

Dramaturgical Inputs: Saido Darwin, Lim How Ngean

Creative Contributors: Akanksha Kumari, Parinay Mehra, Manju Sharma, Meghna Bharadwaj

Supported by: Prakriti Foundation

Community Support and Rehearsal Space: Khuli Khirkee

Residency Support: Collectif FAIR-E/CCNRB and Dance Nucleus

Oddlab is a home for experimental work at Oddbird, connecting artists and audiences in various stages of a piece: early life, work-in-progress sharings, and evolving practices.