COMING OF AGE
Winner of BBC Asia Awards 2001

Three generations of South Asian dancers unite on the South Bank on a journey that asks what it means to be South Asian in the new Millennium. Coming of Age brings the traditional together with the contemporary in a huge outdoor free spectacle.

Sixty plus dancers collaborate with an artistic team that includes dancer / choreographers Mavin Khoo, Chris Bannerman and Filip Van Huffel who will direct sections of the piece. The audience will be able to watch performers all over the outside of the Royal Festival Hall and South Bank Centre in an extraordinary, colourful and thought provoking display of the culture of dance from South Asia.

VIEW A VIDEO OF COMING OF AGE



THE EVENT

It is the South Bank Centre, London. A complex stretching over 27 acres along the Thames, the Houses of Parliament to the West, St Paul's Cathedral to the East. At the centre of this complex stands the Royal Festival Hall, a huge building fronted by concrete and glass, built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. For two evenings, on the 11th and 12th of August 2000, this building, with its walkways, terraces and surrounding walls was transformed into a floodlit performance space for South Asian dance. Welcome to 'Coming of Age', a dance event celebrating 21 years of Akademi, and over 21 years of South Asian dance in Britain.

It is 9 p.m. and the long August day is just giving way to night. An expectant crowd jostles and chats, surging against the stages placed like islands amongst them. There is a hush as a solitary dancer creates a shimmering image of Shiva, as if suspended, high up on the top balcony of the Festival Hall. Down below, a young girl, just 5 years old heralds the future of South Asian dance here in the UK, where she has learnt all she knows.

The music shifts, becoming more jaunty, assured. And suddenly the space is alive with dancers - spiralling their way up steps, flashing out on top of balconies, here framed in a doorway or a window, there beating time along the riverbank, dancing on the stages amidst the crowds. In this event the generations and the diversity that made and continue to make South Asian dance in this country are spectacularly united - bharata natyam next to kathak, odissi next to creative dance. Folk dancers weave through the audience, while down near the riverbank, an art installation brings the space alive. On one stage we see manipuri - on another, three generations of dancers - a guru with her daughter, now a teacher herself, and between them, the youngest family dancer, just two years old.

Wherever you look there are dancers to watch, some close to you, some further away, some traversing distances with their feet, others travelling only with their eyes. For 50 minutes, the South Bank dances in an explosion of styles and forms, all against a soundtrack as varied and stylish as the dance it summons.

Another lull as Ram Gopal is brought to the stage nearest to Hungerford Bridge. He sits, regally watching the scene, while the Millennium wheel revolves slowly round in the background and another circle echoing the wheel frames him in lights. As the dancers turn to pay their respects, a tangible link is made between the very early days of South Asian dance in Britain and now - its Coming of Age.



THE VISION
The Creative Team Speak Out

Keith Khan, Artistic Director
The piece can be read as a wonderful rite of passage for South Asian dance - there is no mysticism here... we can see the dance for what it is across different generations, with each contributing to, and enhancing the work of another generation... This work is definitely more about London, and about the existence of cultures within an evolving and ever changing society.

Pushkala Gopal, Assistant Artistic Director
Coming of Age, for the eclectic family of South Asian dancers in London, is the exciting process of coming together in a collaborative ritual, that celebrates individuality with collective identity...For Akademi and for the community of South Asian dancers under its umbrella, this is a moment of true celebration...

Navtej Johar, Artistic Facilitator
The exercise of making Coming of Age in fragments and then viewing it in its stunning, transformed, artistically-cohesive state, was as generously fulfilling as it was self-eliminating. And this I liked very much! Plus, for me, it truly did mark a coming-of-age for Indian dance, not only because it was instrumental in revising the perceptions of the viewers, but also because it was indicative of a significant shift within.

Simon Corder, Lighting Designer
It was great to work on Coming of Age, an eye opener to the variety of South Asian dance, which I had previously thought of as mostly traditional. Particularly the enthusiasm and commitment of the younger dancers was delightful, combined with Shri's score and an excited crowd. Altogether it made a fine evening.

Shrikanth Sriram, Composer
Coming of Age is poised at a moment where the term actually means something: it is the time where Asians in Britain are actually finding their own voice as British people in a number of fields... The music is not a fusion. I hear both Western and Indian music at the same time in a way that I cannot tell which is which ...I hope it reflects a new way of thinking which is becoming an integral part of our society now...

Penny Andrews, Producer
Six dance forms; ten choreographic commissions; a live art installation; a school collaboration. This diversity has fuelled the remarkable energy which, together with creative generosity and adventure, has characterised Coming of Age.

Mira Kaushik, Director, Akademi
Akademi has been a silent laboratory within which South Asian dancers have experimented and stretched the boundaries of their dance forms within a contemporary British social, educational and artistic context...Coming of Age is an extension of this process...



THE PROCESS
Making the dance

Mavin Khoo, Director, Choreographer, Bharata Natyam Group
As a choreographer, the most interesting thing was working with the bharata natyam group and realising how much potential there is in my generation and in the form. Everyone came from different training backgrounds and styles, but were still able to work together. This was refreshing to see - I hope it indicates a growing trend. It was great watching the development of the dancers over a period of daily training - which just shows how much could be achieved given the opportunity for consistent training. I also enjoyed working with the other choreographers - we had a good laugh.

Filip Van Huffel - Choreographer, Kathak Group
The best thing was just working together with a group towards a common goal...the whole spirit of the event and the group was fantastic...most importantly there were some relationships formed in the group that were special. And that is always a great achievement.

Chris Bannerman, Choreographer, Classical Live Group
The process of collaborating in the making of Coming of Age was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career. To work with performers of such experience and depth was a wonderful inspiration and to be part of an event which reached out to so many people was a delight. Any venture of this scale has its struggles, but the members of the creative team rose to meet every difficulty; along the way they challenged and extended my understanding of performance and this was a reward in itself.

Satish Shah, Choreographer, Folk Dance Group
For me it was a very new and exciting project. For the first time I saw different sections of South Asian dancers & choreographers working together. It threw a new light on South Asian dance. I think projects like this should be done more often as they bring out new ideas ...Mira and Keith did a wonderful job.



THE FUTURE
Where Now?

The performances of Coming of Age created an excitement and a buzz that is going to be hard to beat. There we were dancing together in the Summer evening, lifted by Shri's music, gazed at by a crowd who had never dreamed that South Asian dance could just mean so much fun! We felt beautiful, the crowd thought us beautiful - and this gave us a confidence in ourselves and in our forms that should be with us for a long time yet.

But Coming of Age was not just the performance. There was the whole process that went before it, working in our groups, with our choreographers, setting up camp at the South Bank, and feeling like we owned the place. Who knows what the repercussions of such an event will be? Some dancers are looking at their form afresh, eyes opened to amazing possibilities they had not noticed before. Others look covetously at likely spaces - up towers, along bridges...who said South Asian dance had to be kept to a stage indoors? Still others have become addicted to the buzz of working together, strengthening bonds forged over the Summer. Consciously or unconsciously, the experience of Coming of Age will inevitably influence the way the dancers involved in it develop. How much, and in which ways, only time will tell.

One things is for sure though. We might not always feel that the South Bank programmes as much South Asian dance as we would like - but it is now indisputably our space. In Coming of Age, we swamped it, claimed it and helped to redefine it. In August 2000, a symbol for 1950s Britain became the setting for British South Asian dance. We have arrived. Britain - watch out!



CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Director and Designer: Keith Khan
Assistant Artistic Director: Pushkala Gopal
Artistic Facilitator: Navtej Johar
Lighting: Simon Corder
Music: Shrikanth Sriram
Associate Design: Hattie Barsby
Producer: Penny Andrews
Executive Producer: Mira Kaushik

Supported By
Coming of Age was supported by the Arts Council of England, the Lottery Board of the Arts Council of England, London Arts Board, Asian Music Circuit, Sampad, Sony Asia, Asia House, Aditi, Camden Borough Council, Chor Bizzar, Gulbenkian Foundation, Mela, Nehru Centre and Tamarind.

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