Classical Indian dance is changing but perceptions of it seem stuck in the last millennia for some…. YOU WOULD think marking 25 years as a choreographer and being commissioned to produce a new show to commemorate that achievement at the South Bank would be a special thing. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance has performed internationally, is critically acclaimed for its 55 productions, and Shobana herself, born in Chennai in , has an MBE for her services to dance, and yet there is something more basic and simple that gives her an overriding sense of satisfaction.
Trained in Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance form, she has gone onto become one of the most original and exciting contemporary dance choreographers of her generation.
Jeyasingh represents what seems like a significant moment in the art form — mixing the ancient with the contemporary to create new work which speaks of both east and west, old and new, hope and despair. The minute show reflected her myriad cultural influences and has something deep and profound to say to all of us. Blooms looks modern, futuristic, and is slightly unsettling.
Adaptability, flexibility, a position open to change and growth look like the vital elements that lie at the heart of her latest work and that process of adjustment or transformation, in some readings, is both telling and revealing about Jeyasingh herself and her art.
On one level, it is very subtle and almost unnoticeable — after all dance is a stimulation of our more basic senses, not a prod to our intellect. In that sense, plants are a bit like people.
