Retrospective. 1980-2006

A look back at 26 years of Akademi history.




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R/evolve:
by Shiromi Pinto 2006

Akademi’s chameleon-like quality, its ability to adapt to changing socio-cultural trends and occasionally predict them, has made it what it is today.Whether through community and education outreach programmes or dance training initiatives, Akademi has consistently led the way in increasing an awareness and appreciation of South Asian dance practice across cultural groups in London and, arguably, the UK.

From its early days as a provider of evening classes to its transformation into a touring company in the mid to late 1980s, Akademi was focused on cultivating an enthusiasm for the art form, filling a gap in service provision and building audiences for South Asian dance.

The 1990s saw Akademi blossom into a fully fledged arts development organisation, reflected in its creation of the separate and complementary departments of education, community, dance training and dance development.

These departments were streamlined in 2001 to represent a new direction for Akademi - large-scale, site-specific, professional productions - so that the organisation now operates on a twin-track approach, its education and community division working symbiotically with its production, training and professional development unit.

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    • Through its departments and officers, Akademi has embarked on a series of innovations in South Asian dance activity: introducing theme-based projects linked to the National Curriculum, confronting contemporary issues through practice which encourages self-empowerment, opening up dialogue between South Asian dance professionals and their western contemporary counterparts, pioneering research into dance training needs.

      Akademi officers and artists are now found in multiple contexts: from schools to prisons, youth centres to hospitals, special needs groups to homes for the elderly. Its professional workshops have given rise to cross-disciplinary exploration. Its dance training research has led to the creation of a South Asian dance faculty at the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, internationally recognised syllabi for bharata natyam and kathak and, for the first time, the possibility of specialising in South Asian dance at the London Contemporary Dance School through its BA (Hons) Contemporary Dance.

      Akademi's extravaganzas, Coming of Age (2000) and Escapade (2002), transformed the placid exterior of the South Bank Centre, celebrating South Asian dance in a storm of colour and motion. These events were the most public testament to the role played by the organisation in the development of a vibrant South Asian dance community. With such an extensive portfolio, Akademi is certainly considered a leading arts development organisation in London - a regional organisation of strategic, national significance.

      Twenty-six years on, and Akademi continues to engage in this dialectic, bringing South Asian dance to a range of subjects-from children to the elderly, novices to professional dancers. And Akademi will continue to negotiate the narratives as it participates in this dynamic and enduring conversation.”



Resisting the Box
Ken Bartlett finds Akademi’s community dance initiatives thriving outside the conventional framework. More »


Shifting Paradigms
Christopher Bannerman considers the globalisation of South Asian dance. More »


A Moving Landscape
Homi K Bhaba reflects on the transformative nature of dance. More »


Beginnings
Tara Rajkumar looks back at the founding of Akademi

It has been said that the future is not a place we go to but one we create.

The paths that lead to it are deliberately laid and not just discovered accidentally. Through the process of creating this enriched future, both maker and destination are changed. As creative artists we are caught up in this exciting wheel of continuity and change. Wherever we go, we take with us our own heritage, striking roots in a new cultural environment. From nowhere can I draw a better example of this than my own experience as founder of what is now Akademi.

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    • After arriving in London in the 1970s, fresh out of college from India, the first few years were rather bleak. Many were the miles I trudged performing and many were the days when I felt I was facing an unyielding wall. But being an eternal optimist, I focused on what lay beyond.

      Persistence eventually reaped a small grant from the Commission for Racial Equality, and the first National Academy of Indian Dance in England was founded. Key to this success were Dr Tania Rose, officer for the CRE, and Robin Howard, then Director of the London School of Contemporary Dance.

      Through James Porter and the Commonwealth Institute, where the organisation was initially based, the Academy’s early activities began to flower. Of note were two ground breaking seminars (The Contribution of Indian Dance to British Culture, 1982 and The Place of Indian Dance in British Culture, 1983) which included workshops and performances giving the events mini-festival status.

      An all important contribution came from artists like Pratap and Priya Pawar, Shobhana Jeyasingh, Chitra Sundaram and many others who gave generously of their time and effort. One project that was an outright success was an exhibition cum workshop series initiated for the Inner London Education Authority. School after school brought children to learn about Indian dance concepts. A booklet was published and a slide series on the Ramayana produced, illustrating the art of storytelling through dance. In the early 1980s I moved to Australia.

      In the 1990s I was informed that the organisation I founded was and is now recognised as a leading provider of South Asian dance education in Britain. Akademi’s achievements are many and noteworthy, and I cannot help a certain feeling of pride – a sense that I was perhaps a small spark among many others that set alight a roaming hearth of interest and activity in South Asian dance in Britain today.

      By keeping a sharp focus on the changing socio-cultural environment and the interactive needs of the dance arts, Akademi continues to grow and shape itself into the foremost contemporary centre for living South Asian dance in the UK.



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