Choogh Choogh

Choogh Choogh is a performance work inspired by the joy of travelling through India on a train.

It combines classical Indian dance with contemporary movement, theatre, and play, sharing with audiences a world full of colour, invention, and flow.

The journey starts with the audience getting a special Choogh Choogh ticket. Three artists weave a traveling tapestry with three scarves, changing from one scene to the next as the sights, sounds, and smells whizz by. The soundscape is rich with the sounds of the train, hawkers, festivals, musicians, and ambient sounds of rivers, jungles, and cities. The artists sing songs that are specially written for children – Chai Chai, Coffee Coffee, and Kites Kites everywhere. They interact with the audience, engaging their imagination. Scarves become steam, railway tracks, turbans, train windows, camels, elephants and so much more. It is a journey where the audience experiences a world inside the train, through the train, and outside it. Along the way the ticket gets checked, and imaginary food is sold and shared.

This show is an exploration of just how much we can see and imagine, together, as the train chooghs chooghs on.