Holy Dirt

The Clay Connection presents

New work for outdoors by Vidya Thirunarayan, directed by David Glass

Available for booking from summer 2025

Following the successful international touring of Lives of Clay, Vidya’s first work for outdoors, we’re delighted to announce a new project with acclaimed performance-maker and director David Glass.

This new adventure, working with the creative all-rounder David Glass, again melds clay with dance. Holy Dirt is a vibrant, funny and beautifully episodic outdoor performance, playfully exploring the mythic feminine figure as she struggles ridiculously through our climate catastrophe.

An international co-production, Holy Dirt is set to explode onto the scene in the UK, India and South Korea in 2025/26.

Holy Dirt explores how the process of activism by female climate warriors past and present, links to our place on earth today. We want to convey this serious theme with a generous dose of daring, provocation, spectacle, entertainment, joy and inspiration.

The production will be nimble, affordable for touring at small-mid scale, with plenty of participatory activities for communities of dancers, potters and we particularly want to connect with environmentalists in the locations we visit.

Funded by Arts Council England, Certain Blacks, Art Asia and InKo, Holy Dirt is supported by and created at 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space in August 2024, with further development in India in September supported by InKo.

Vidya says: Holy Dirt will ultimately tell stories from the hills of India rooted in eco-feminism; stories of women and their deep connection with their land or Boomi devi/Goddess Earth, from the Himalayas to the Mudumalai forests of Southern India. The ambition is to make a piece that surprises in its physicality and to develop an authentic, intercultural voice.”

Combining theatre, dance, music and clay, Holy Dirt will be performed by Vidya and a guest artist to a family audience.

Holy Dirt has recently completed an inspirational R&D in the UK and India.It included working with invited collaborators to develop and test ideas, drawing on varied movement, music and dramatic styles. The UK team comprised:

Liz Aggiss : maker of distinctive dance works for over 40 years

James Foster : multi-instrumentalist, composer and performer

Teele Uustani : maker/manipulator of objects and puppets including with The Paper Cinema

Mira Balchandran Gokul : expert Bharata Natyam performer and Kathakali enthusiast

Kumiko Mendl : actor/director and founding member of New Earth Theatre

Nina Harries : double bassist and vocalist

Qian Yan, Tan : creative stage manager

Lisa Wolfe : producer

The Indian and Korean team comprised:

Maya Rao - Kathakali performer and theatre -maker/performer

Kalairani - maker-performer of distinct solo tamil theatre works

Palani Murugan- Therukootu performer