By JESSICA NEU
Dancer, Choreographer, and Teacher Aakash Odedra‘s impressive resume features over 300 full-length performance credits across more than 40 countries, all in the past decade. What makes this triumph even more amazing is that Odedra’s performances are solo. Odedra boldly and fearlessly steps on stage alone and single-handedly mesmerizes audiences for over an hour.
My eight- and nine-year-old children accompanied me to Odedra’s Songs of the Bulbul – the second performance of the Pittsburgh Dance Council‘s 2025-26 season. They are both competitive dancers and walked away from the performance astonished and inspired that Odedra performed an hour-long solo, which they spent nearly a year trying to perfect, into a 2-minute solo. Regardless of your age or dance experience, Odedra’s Song of the Bubul is an inspiring piece of work that brings a sense of joy, hope, and inspiration to the often-dysthymic style of contemporary dance.
Odedra’s solo dance features choreography by Rani Khanam and a breathtaking, cinematic score by composer Rushil Ranjan, performed by Manchester Camerata. Before Odedra takes the stage, we learn about the nightingale or “Bulbul.” These birds hold a special place in Persian culture. The ancient Sulfi myth of a captured bulbul inspires the work. The bird was caged, but continued to sing. Then the bird was covered in dark material, but continued to sing in search of light. Eventually, the bird’s eyes were removed, prompting it to sing its most melancholy song before departing its earthly life. The Bulbul’s story is used to establish the show’s major metaphor. There is a parallel between the bird and an artist, as an artist leaves a little bit of themselves on the stage after each performance. Songs of the Bulbul represents the balance between captivity and liberation, as well as the soul’s confinement to a material world.
Odedra takes the stage amidst six branches hanging vertically from the ceiling, with hundreds of rose petals delicately laid on the stage. An array of candles positioned stage left forms a crescent shape and illuminates the theater (Lighting Designer Fabiana Piccioli). Emanuele Salamanca‘s set design boasts a clear connection to nature that welcomes Odedra to the stage. Clad in a flowing white dress, Odedra’s dancing is elegant, joyful, and swift. Known as a beautiful performer of the north Indian dance kathak, Odedra’s training in classical Indian dance styles is apparent. Odedra freely leaps, turns, swoops, and moves about the stage with grace and fluidity. Ranjan’s score interweaves flamenco rhythms, elements of bhangra, quiet moments that strengthen the connection to nature, and swells in fortissimo to add a sense of drama to Odedra’s story.
Odedra effortlessly made the rose petals his fellow dancers as his movements woke the petals from the stage and allowed them to float about the stage with the same free-flowing beauty as Odedra’s own movements. His white dress also swelled and moved with Odedra, adding dimension and imagery to his dancing. Eventually, the branches crashed to the ground, and Odedra was lit by a single strobe light amidst the branches that now stood on the stage instead of being suspended from the ceiling. Dancing with his hands behind his back, Odedra’s story took on a sense of struggle and captivity – much like the story of the bulbul. There were brief moments of liberation as Odedra still tried to free himself from his turmoil, but he quickly collapsed amongst the branches, once again trying to escape the perils that hindered his life.
A flashing strobe light emphasized Odedra’s frantic desperation. Lying on the ground, Odedra’s brief spasmic movements were then met with stillness – silence. Now crawling, clawing, grasping for his next step, the candles suddenly brighten in a stunningly cathartic moment. That moment of tension release is short-lived as Odedra uses his own hands to symbolize feeling attacked, silenced, and eventually blinded. Odedra lets out a single shrilling scream as a blindfold now covers his eyes. The strobe light returns, creating an illusion of Odedra trying to see despite having lost his eyesight. The flashing lights allow us to see in glimpses and fragments, distorting our perception and orientation. However, as one leaves their earthly body, there is often a moment of clarity when a new sense of light and hope is discovered. Odedra’s dancing symbolizes light and power, and new rose petals rain from the ceiling, signaling a rebirth and new life.
Songs of the Bulbul is not a story of battling external enemies but rather an allegorical representation of our internal battles, the adventures we seek, and ultimately overcoming adversity to find our own joy. Marked with beautiful imagery, delicate movement, and precise musicality, Songs of the Bulbul personifies poetic artistry in motion to tell a story of celebration on resilience.
The next Pittsburgh Dance Council concert presentation is by the Martha Graham Dance Company on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at the Byham Theater
The Pittsburgh Dance Council concerts are a project of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. Tickets at: https://trustarts.org/production/101598/martha-graham-dance-company
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
Leave a Reply Cancel reply