Very recently, South Asian dance organisation Akademi announced a series of commissions in partnership with DanceEast for artists who are pushing innovation in their respective dance forms. The awardees were Shivaangee Agrawal, Anjana Bala, Chandenie Gobardhan, Divija Melally and Kesha Raithatha.
We spoke to Shivaangee, Kesha and Anjana about their commissions and what this kind of support means at a time where financial support is becoming increasingly challenging.
DAJ: Tell us about your commissions.
Kesha: I’m going to begin a new choreographic exploration delving into the intersection of fashion, culture, and sustainability. I want to investigate the rich tradition of passing down clothing and jewellery within British South Asian culture juxtaposing it with the contemporary era of fast fashion and disposable trends. By celebrating up cycled, repurposed & pre-loved garments, I hope to simultaneously honour rich south Asian heritage and highlight the importance of sustainability.
Anjana: My commission will explore themes of leisure, labor, work and rest. It will be “about” these things, but also will be a method that tries to think carefully about working practices while making the piece. For instance, am I just making this work because I’m buying into a capitalistic mode of constantly needing to produce and create? Am I making this work to satisfy my basic material needs (in my privileged case, no)? Am I making this to say something, as a kind of politics/ethics/relationality, or am I making this as a form of self-referential self expression? These kinds of questions are also guiding my choreographic research.
Shivaangee: It’s a £5k award to get started on a new idea, and it’s a partnership with DanceEast and their creative technology lab.
I’m working with long-time tech collaborator and film artist Tom Shennan to see how we can use motion capture technology to create an audience-interactive work. I’m curious about giving audience members agency to affect change in the performance, both as individuals and as a (temporary) community of people. We are also keen to explore the distortion of time through live playback of the performance on multiple devices.
DAJ: Kesha, passing down objects is a way to celebrate history and preserve memory. What objects do you hope to use and what are their significance; both personally for you and culturally?
Kesha: I believe that objects, particularly clothing and jewelry, are potent carriers of history and memory. I envision utilising a diverse collection, ranging from used and upcycled South Asian garments to Western and international fashion pieces. These items, with their layered histories of personal narratives, emotional journeys, and fleeting trends, will serve as the foundation for my work. I aim for these items to create an environment where these objects become central characters in the performance architecture; their presence evoking a sense of history, sentiment, and cultural significance.
DAJ: Anjana, what made you use the commission to develop your filmmaking and writing about dance?
Anjana: I’m interested in film for both practical and conceptual reasons. Practically, especially if an artist decides to make their film open access, it can kind of tour itself. Conceptually, I like that so much of our everyday life and our realities are mediated by what we see in film. You may even notice something about the outside world on film first. It is also an extra bit of technology that allows the choreographer to play with (cuts, jump cuts, the moving camera, diegetic sounds) in relation to moving bodies.
DAJ: Shivaangee, broadly speaking, this commission is about climate change and the hopelessness people feel when trying to change. How will you be using dance or movement to explore this idea and how do you hope audiences will feel or think?
Shivaangee: I’m interested in cycles of generation, momentum, fatigue and recovery. I hope that through an experience of cyclical time that is carefully crafted, audience members can feel both seen / understood in their hopelessness and find glimmers of hope in the gradual evolution that can occur over cycles of time.
DAJ: How does it feel to be awarded this commission?
Kesha: Akademi has consistently demonstrated a strong belief in my artistic vision and exploration of diverse movement and concepts. They’ve always been a true advocate for my unique voice as an artist, I am immensely grateful for this commission, which will allow me to further develop this nascent concept and challenging creative direction.
Anjana: I feel humbled to receive this, and very grateful I get to be on this journey.
Shivaangee: Firstly just really grateful to be able to access funding in our current climate of endless rejections and shrinking funds! It’s come at a time when I’ve been sitting with a specific choreographic idea for a long time, so I’m rearing to get going with it. After many years investing in my practice as a maker through my project Velocities, I feel well-resourced to go through a creation process with momentum, confidence and ambition.
DAJ: Who will you be collaborating with?
Kesha: This project is still in its early stages, so there are no confirmed collaborators at this time. However, I envision collaborating with artists from the diaspora who share my interest in exploring themes of sustainability and cultural identity. Specifically, I am in communication with and drawn to artists who understand the concepts of upcycling and sampling, both in terms of fashion and music. I’m eager to work closely with individuals who possess a deep understanding of diasporic fashion, including its trends, philosophies, and traditional influences.
Anjana: I’ll be collaborating mostly with people I have already worked with in order strengthen the practices we already have in place while trying to make space to invite newness in.
Shivaangee: I’ll be looking for dancers trained in Indian classical dance to make this piece on. I’ve been developing a methodology that uses the body as a generator of sound first, and dance afterwards, and I’m keen to bring this to dance artists who can also draw on their expertise with Indian sound-making languages.
For more information about the artists and Akademi, visit: https://www.akademi.co.uk. Header image: Still from Optics by Anjana Bal. Photo credit: Cathy Ye.