A story of love, resilience and inner strength
on July 14, 2026
at the Dora Stratou Theatre
Athens, Greece
At the 4th World Festival of Indian Dance of the International Dance Council 

Oviya, Oviya, my darling Oviya. Close your eyes and go to sleep. The night is long and you need your rest. Close your eyes and go to sleep.

What dreams do you have my little precious girl? Do you have the same dreams as I? Do you dream of us walking together hand in hand? Do you dream of saying “Amma, I love you” and dancing into my arms?

Since the day you were born, you have given me the strength of a hundred warriors, the patience of a thousand sages and compassion of a healer.

Where is this god that I had prayed to my whole life? He who can move mountains... why can he not give you the strength to take 2 steps? He who commands the universe, why can he not give you the gift of speech? What kind of god would take a helpless child and make her more helpless?

You may be helpless but you are not hopeless. Just because you cannot speak doesn’t mean that you cannot be heard. Just because you cannot stand doesn’t make you powerless.

I love you so much my child that my heart aches. Your pain is my pain, your happiness is my happiness. I have never known a love so deep, like a bottomless ocean. Close your eyes and go to sleep.

My life with you is without rest. Day and night, life and death. Who will look after you when I am gone? How can I survive if you are gone?

So close your eyes and go to sleep Oviya. Both of us need the rest. Both of us need the strength. 

Oviya Shakthi is a production based on the pillars of inclusion, love and strength.

The production begins with Amma Kavithuvam, a dance depicting a dream scene of children and mothers playing together, in an homage to mother’s love and dedication. The dance ends as the mother narrating the story wakes up to her own reality of raising her special needs daughter, Oviya.

Facing endless sleepless nights, she sings a lullaby, Thalattu, to her daughter. She asks her daughter if she sees the same dream she sees, walking together hand in hand forgetting time and space. She asks, where is Shiva, Muruga, Ganesha, Vishnu, Meenakshi and all other Gods at a time when she needs them, as she finds herself caring for her helpless daughter day and night.

She finally falls asleep and over the years wakes up to a new reality she never imagined for herself. The strength of her daughter, despite being in a wheelchair, has brought strength to herself and all those around her, in a celebration of Shakthi.                                                                          

The word Oviya in Tamil means art or artist, while Shakthi means power or strength and refers to the female strength embodied by the Hindu Goddess Durga or Parvathi.  In this production, Oviya Shakthi has a double meaning, referring to the strength of art as well as the strength of Oviya, a young woman with special needs.  The production centered around the lullaby written by Ramya Raghavan and translated and put to music by Madurai R. Muralidharan in 2023.  It has been performed in several cities in Canada supported by a grant by the Canadian Council of the Arts.