Well-known Indo-British choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh is in India to perform after two decades When she left for England as an earnest teenager to study English Literature at Sussex University,budding Bharatnatyan dancer Shobana Jeyasingh had little idea that a career in academics would ultimately lose out to her hobby. Or that it would be 20 years before she would return to India to dance again. On Tuesday,as the curtains rose on the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company at the Ignite Festival of Contemporary Dance in Delhi,dancers,both established and budding,and dance lovers packed the auditorium. For Jeyasingh,now in her fifties and based in London,is today an internationally renowned choreographer,feted with several awards including an MBE. For more than 20 years,I have tried to perform in India but finding resources for the dancers,musicians and office staff among others always proved a challenge, says Jeyasingh,who regularly holidays with her family in India. When I left for England,I was just like any other girl learning Bharatnatyam at the insistence of her mother. It was after I graduated that I realised that dance,which had the power to speak,would be my vocation forever. I quit my teaching job soon after, she recalls. Her piece for the India tour is a double bill called Faultline and Bruise Blood; the former explores the paranoia among young Asian men after the London underground bombings in 2005 and expands to cover the universal theme of youth angst. It was a difficult time to be young,brown and male in London, says Jeyasingh. On stage,her troupe of highly athletic dancers begin their energetic movements,the tempo picking up with every step until even the audience feels the adrenaline rush. Its a power-packed piece that lives up to Jeyasinghs style. I always choose fast pieces. My dancers complain but I feel that the audience has to be fully moved. They have to feel their blood flowing faster, says the choreographer. Bruise Blood unfolds to a radical soundtrack,performed by beatboxer Roxar,about a 19-year-old boy,wrongly arrested in the 1964 Harlem riots,who had to open up the wounds on his body to convince people that police had beaten him up. The dance moves serve to isolate parts of the body,leaving the audience marvelling at the flexibility of the human body. Jeyasinghs moves are both new as well as an amalgamation of various dance forms,from flamenco to Bharatnatyam. Shes used to being quizzed about the switch from pure classical dance to the contemporary idiom. I am completely and utterly interested in movement,especially abstract movement. Even while walking down the street,I feel the impression of the different movements, she says,adding that she practised Bharatnatyam till 1988. I was not the worlds best Bharatnatyam dancer,so my moving into contemporary dancing is not a great loss, she says with a laugh. In 1989,she started the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company,drawing in dancers from various nationalities and disciplines and creating innovative choreography. Among her most notable were the 2009 piece called Just Add Water?,which examines cross cultural eating as a success story of our time and explores how cultural differences are influenced by our obsession with food and cooking and Counterpoint,commissioned by Somerset House and the English National Ballet and involves 55 fountains. At present,Jeyasingh,an avid reader and music lover,is tackling AS Byatt. By next autumn,I hope to have my next piece,called Classic Cut ready, she says. And,with luck and some funds,she might tour India again.
