Commissions

A medical college. The human body. You might expect examination, diagnosis and treatment, but Duty Free serves up movement encounters and sensorial discoveries. Rather like its namesake at the airport, it sets itself up as a space of wonder and curiosity. Over eight days, three dance artists take turns inhabiting a riverfront verandah in the Old Goa Medical College building, making it both studio and stage.

Duty Free is open through the day, functioning as an exhibition space and embodied archive, interspersing the behind-the-scenes labour of dance – improvisation, repetition, failure – with performances and workshops at scheduled intervals. Its artists set up interactions that are tactile, embodied, textual and aural, offering movement prompts and traces of their practice for you to engage with.

On the other side of the street, offshore casinos floating in the Mandovi river toe the ambiguous line between land and water. Think of Duty Free then as ‘shore leave’ – an interval filled with excitement, liberty and play. Here, dance offers a space outside of duty – beyond the logics of obligation, efficiency and outcome. As you pass through it, you might indulge in something new – seeing, hearing, sensing or moving as you’ve never done before.

Duty Free was commissioned by Serendipity Arts for Serendipity Arts Festival 2025.