Sonia Sabri Brummie through and through... “London is so cut-throat whereas in Birmingham artists support each other. I make a point of giving work to musicians and dancers based in Birmingham. We’re very much home grown... ”
For those not in the know, how would you describe Kathak dance? It’s a dance style from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Kathak literally means a storyteller. So primarily, when it first began as an art form, people used to portray stories through mime, song, lyrics and what we nowadays know as rapping and beatboxing. The latter has actually existed in Kathak song from the time of its creation. There’s also the technical part of Kathak, which we refer to as pure dance - a real demonstration of rhythms and body movements. It’s quite a skilled and very technical subject within the Kathak form. There’s also a lot of footwork and interaction with tabla, which is the main percussion instrument. It’s one of those all-round art forms where you can communicate through expression. It’s also very dramatic. It has links with flamenco; what we know as flamenco today is actually a combination of what used to be the native Spanish dance and Kathak. The Kathak gypsies travelled across to Europe and arrived in Southern Spain - in Andalucia - where they generated an ongoing collaboration, the result of which is what’s today known as flamenco. This year marks the company’s tenth anniversary. How are you planning to celebrate? We’re doing a short national tour, which premieres our new show Kaavish at Capstone Theatre in <strong>Live</strong>rpool then comes to mac in Birmingham on 24 <strong>Nov</strong>ember. The mac, I would say, is very much my second home, because I started my training there when I was eight and now I teach there. I’m a Company Associate Artist there as well. In <strong>Live</strong>rpool, one of our key commissioners Milapfest has commissioned the celebratory programme, so it’s apt that we should perform it there first. The mac is also generously supporting us, providing a lot of space and technical facilities and hosting an exhibition which will be supplementary to the performance. After <strong>Nov</strong>ember, we perform in India, and then return to tour a further five or seven dates, culminating in a performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall. After that, we’ll go into creating our new show. Has work already begun on that? We’ll be doing some research and development work between our mac show and when we leave for India. There’ll also be a two-week R&B with some dancers. You mentioned starting your dance training at the age of eight. Do you come from a dance background? No, not at all. I think my love of dance came about as a result of the aspirations of my parents - particulary my dad, who always wanted to be a Bollywood actor. He ran away from home and ended up in Mumbai, but didn’t get anywhere with it. He eventually ended up in England, got married and had two kids. I was the first born, and I guess he put all his energies into trying to turn me into a Bollywood actress. So I went to the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama for about ten years from the age of seven, and also became involved in dancing. It was quite by accident that I got into Kathak. I was first enrolled at mac for a South Indian dance classical style, which my dad didn’t really know much about. We arrived earlier than scheduled and there was a Kathak class already taking place, so he thought I might as well jump into that one. I haven’t looked back. Over the years, my dad’s dream of me going to Bollywood subsided, because dance is a very disciplined form - particularly Kathak, which is a very grounded art form. It really sorts you out if you’re an un-sorted person, and it gives you a real focus in life. Bollywood may be fun and glamourous by comparison, but it’s not a world in which one would necessarily say they could feel safe and happy. Do you see dance as a useful tool in breaking down social and cultural barriers? It’s really another language, one that’s beyond the barriers of words. I think we can use the medium of dance to explore any topic, be it romantic, tragic or social. It’s really an amplification of what we feel and what we’re sometimes afraid to say. We perform to a very mixed audience - including people from orthodox communities who sometimes believe that dance and music aren’t things we should be celebrating, but who nonetheless turn up and take away something quite meaningful. At the other end of the spectrum, we perform to people who are avant-garde - cutting-edge audiences who’re amused by what we have to say through our music and our dance. So yes, I think we have to drop the labels and look at Kathak for what it is. It’s as contemporary as any Western dance aesthetic. It’s a timeless art form which will continue to evolve. It enables us to express ourselves - and as humans, we need an outlet for doing that. Have you seen audience attitudes towards dance change over the past ten years? Absolutely! When I first decided that I wanted to start a company, people imagined that we would perform traditional Kathak dance - there’s a particular format that one performs - but from the outset we decided to do something more challenging. In the first year we produced a digital project which brought together live music, live dance and live digital interactivity on stage. That completely challenged people’s perceptions of what Kathak was, what Kathak could become, and what the Sonia Sabri Company could do. From that time on, we’ve always tried to create something which is groundbreaking and pioneering. I feel proud to say that we’ve presented something that’s very new and very different. And although people have said that it’s controversial, traditions - particulary the South Asia interview... This year celebrating its tenth anniversary, Birmingham-based Sonia Sabri Company has earned itself an international reputation for its performances of the South Asian art form Kathak. What’s <strong>On</strong> recently caught up with artistic director Sonia to talk about the company - and why her Birmingham roots are such an important element of her success. traditions - have mirrored what we’ve done. We’ve been at the forefront of creating new ideas, and that’s what we intend to continue doing for the next ten years. And are your current objectives the same as those you had when you started? They’re bigger! The ethos of the company is to challenge and broaden people’s perspectives of what Kathak is, and we’re always looking at ways of delivering not only the dance vocabulary but also the philosophy of Kathak. We’re always looking for a narrative in which to convey a story. What we do is look at ways of conveying that narrative either on a solo basis or by working as part of a collaboration with another dance form or another artist. When we talk about collaboration, it’s about having a dialogue on and off stage. So we’re not forcing anything to happen, such as ‘you follow my technique’, or ‘I’ll follow your technique’. It’s about how techniques come together. Out most recent project, Kathakbox, toured internationally for two years, and we brought contemporary and African dance to that. We found that, although we’re very different in the way we use our vocabulary, there’s a common thread in how we engage with the audience. For example, a lot of people aren’t aware that rap and beatbox derived from Indian traditions. They think it’s something very current and something that America invented. Beatbox is a major context of Kathak, so when we showcase that with Kathakbox, people are really amazed. The parallels between hip-hop dance and Kathak are common, it’s just that people aren’t aware of them, so part of our job is to reeducate, re-inform and surprise our audiences. Do you always look to strike a balance between the more traditional and the urban elements of your performances? When we talk about tradition, it’s not about reinventing old repertoires, it’s about a particular classical format; a particular style which you perform. The repertoire can be as ‘here and now’ as you like. It can be about the Conservative Party and its agenda if you want it to be, but it’s done through a classic format of Kathak. Urban, I would say, is much more a reflection of the movement vocabulary I’ve developed by working with a lot of younger dancers who’re influenced by street dance and hip-hop. It’s quite a broad subject in itself. Our audiences for both strands are growing. How does the understanding and interpretation of dance differ between the UK and India? I think India is slowly accepting the contemporising of traditional art forms - although it’s looking through a very different lens when it does that, because people in India are still very much grounded in their spiritual and cultural roots. To present anything which is a really challenging art form is seen as taking a risk. As an art form it can do more than tell stories about gods, goddesses and
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