#AkademiSupported
Akademi is committed to nurturing South Asian dance talent in the UK. One of the ways we do this is by supporting artists’ projects through mentoring and advice, marketing expertise, bursaries and commissions. The nature of the project can vary from choreographic exploration to event production; from live performance to digital or from topical work to research. Discover some of the recent work by artists that Akademi has supported below.
2025
Hamshya is researching and developing an outdoor site specific movement piece about the sensitivity of ground nesting Birds to our human movements at Greenham & Crookham common.
Five artist commissions of £5000 each, to individual artists or collectives with South Asian dance at the core of their practice. One of the four commissions will be specifically awarded to an artist working at the intersection of South Asian dance and creative technology. Find out more about the commissioned artists and their projects – Artist Commissions
2024
This film is a contemporary South Asian dance work that draws upon Indian classical rhythms, shapes, and geometries. Created by Anjana Bala and a team of talented collaborators, the film uses optics as a metaphor for visibility, exploring how we pursue it and the emotional consequences it entails.
Set against shifting landscapes of light and the edges of visibility, this film explores our complex relationship with being seen and social worth—oscillating between competing for it and resisting it, between perfection and imperfection, between embracing dreams of recognition and discovering one’s own light.
Credits:
Choreography, Artistic Direction, Writer: Anjana Bala
Dance Artists: Aishani Ghosh, Adhya Shastry & Anjana Bala
Direction, Edit, Color: Wilkie Branson
Composer: Nicole Robson
Director of Photography: Cathy Ye
Rehearsal Direction/Dramaturgy: Nandita Shankardass
Tabla and Production Support: Ritesh Sunnasy
1st Assistant Camera: Angus Cheung
Veena: Booni Bala
Audio Description: Shivaangee Agrawal & Elaine Lillian Joseph (SoundScribe)
Photography: Vidya Patel
Special Thanks: Eva Martinez, Seeta Patel, Julien Kottukapally
Commissioning Credits:
Commissioned By:
Moving Online: Ontology and Ownership of Internet Dance
AHRC & Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University
PI: Dr. Hetty Blades
Grant number:AH/W01002X/1
CC BY-NC 4.0
Further Support By:
Akademi – South Asian Dance UK
East London Dance
Rose Choreographic School – Sadler’s Wells
Coventry University’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account
16 November, 7pm, Curve Leicester
An evening of South Asian Classical Dance: Exploring the theme of Love and Devotion
A festival that celebrates the diversity and vibrancy of South Asian classical dance. This unique evening showcased exceptional live performances at the heart of Leicester. From Bharatanatyam to Kathak, Odissi to Kandyan dance, artists from across the UK including Kinga Malec, Amritha Jayakrishnan, Pallabi Basak Vijay, Kandyan Dancers Company and the Nupur Arts Ensemble will explore the theme of Love and Devotion.
Since its launch in 2015, Ānartam has established a legacy of promoting cultural exchange, preserving traditional art forms, and fostering appreciation for diverse South Asian traditions. Akademi has been thrilled to be supporting this journey over the years. Curated by Nupur Arts and supported by Curve Theatre, Akademi and Michaels Estates and funded by Arts Council England.
This work, aimed at children aged 7+, explores the cultural significance of trees in the East and the West. Drawing inspiration from Buddha attaining enlightenment under a Bodhi (fig) tree in India and Newton discovering gravity from an apple tree in the UK, Tree of Life weaves a tale of how these two events lead to a deepening of human understanding, spiritually and scientifically. our Artistic Director, Suba, was honoured to attend the R&D and provide mentorship to this valuable project.
Supported by Arts Council England, and partners Akademi, Cambridge Junction, DanceEast, Hertfordshire LibrariesCambridge Curiosity and Imagination , CUH Arts and Mercury Theatre Colchester.
29 October
11am – 12:15pm
30 January – 19 Mar
Tuesday 7 – 8:30pm
Sadler’s Wells
The second phase of Meera Patel’s Sensing Indian Classical Dance project returned to Sadler’s Wells with another series of Indian classical dance workshops.
The first phase of the project in 2021 saw Meera, joined by dance artists Shivaangee Agrawal and Maryam Shakiba, receive audio description training from VocalEyes, conduct workshops approaching learning from a non-visual perspective and carry out research and development towards a new Indian classical dance performance work. VocalEyes audio describer Julia Grundy led the audio description training and joined the dance artists as co-facilitator for two workshops.
The workshops returned to Sadler’s Wells for 8 weeks from Tuesday 30 January. Meera was joined again by Maryam and Shivaangee. Excitingly, new for the second phase, they were also joined by Baluji Shrivastav OBE, who co-facilitated and provided live Indian classical music for the workshops.
January 2024
The Place
Abandhana (Pāli – ‘Unfettered’) is a dance-theatre-musical immersion into the heart-breaking honesty, beauty and depth of Therigāthā (Songs of Theri-s), the earliest known anthology of women’s literature.
Virtuosic and expressive Bharatanatyam movement vocabulary is used to draw parallels between the unapologetic choice of the Theri-s to ‘renounce’, and the nuanced choice of contemporary women to ‘renegotiate’ all that impedes them.
Live musicians are woven into the earthy spatial narrative, aspiring to expand the frontiers of Bharatanatyam’s form and content. Complex percussive structures reflect challenges, confusion, and trauma. Evocative pre-modern poetry in Pāli language serves as a conduit that clears the thorny path. Melodic cello passages layered atop a visceral Tibetan soundscape of chants, hymns, and gongs symbolize the healing destination.
Abandhana hopes to be an artistic reminder of our potential to pursue agency and freedom, inspired by the single-mindedness of Theri-s to release fetters that held them back.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Divya Ravi is a Bharatanatyam performing artiste, choreographer and educator. Driven by a keen interest in translating the lyrical, the poetic and the abstract, into gestures, emotions and stories, Divya’s choreographic practice has culminated in critically acclaimed solo works presented to full houses and sold-out theatres in India, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Hong Kong, UK and China. Backed by rigorous formative training in India for over 2 decades, Divya expands her solo practice in the UK, mentored by Mavin Khoo. She has worked with Akram Khan Company, Dance East, Akademi, SAMPAD, and is the Lead Tutor for CAT Yuva Gati.
CAST
Concept, Script, Research, Choreography and Dance: Divya Ravi
Music Composition & Vocals: Sharan Subramanian
Rhythms & Multi-percussions: Prathap Ramachandra
Cello: Liz Hanks
COLLABORATORS
Pali Resource Scholar: Suhas Mahesh
Creative Inputs: Mavin Khoo
Lighting Design: Ali Hunter
Photos: Mithun Pai, Maya Yoncali
Commissioning Partners: SAA-UK, SAMPAD, Kadam Dance
Supporting Partners: Arts Council England, Pagrav Dance, East London Dance, Akademi
Hosted by Akademi
Date: January 19, 2024, Time: 2-4pm (BST)
The project launch will feature an introduction to the SADE network followed by brief provocations from artists and academics on the topic of decentring India and Hinducentrism in South Asian dance.
Speakers:
Feriyal Amal Aslam – Independent dance scholar-artist and activist
Sandhaya Gurung – Independent visual artist
Amina Khayyam – Artistic Director, Amina Khayyam Dance Company
Dr. Rohini Rai – Lecturer in the Sociology of Race, Brunel University London
Naaz Rashid – Senior Lecturer of Media and Film, University of Sussex
Collectively, the participants will speak about the topic of decentring from the perspectives of Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Himayalan region, and their British diasporas.
Zoom webinar:
*Free and open to the public.
More information: Event page, SADE website
Akademi is supporting a two-year programme for eight developing choreographers and dance makers whose practice is rooted in South Asian Dance. South Asian Dance meant in the broadest sense here from Kathak, to Odissi, to Bollywood, and Bhangra.
The programme will provide a space for these artists to re-examine their choreographic process and extend their practice through intensive weekends of creative exchange, peer-led learning, mentoring, and support.
2023
Akademi is supporting a two-year programme for eight developing choreographers and dance makers whose practice is rooted in South Asian Dance. South Asian Dance meant in the broadest sense here from Kathak, to Odissi, to Bollywood, and Bhangra.
The programme will provide a space for these artists to re-examine their choreographic process and extend their practice through intensive weekends of creative exchange, peer-led learning, mentoring, and support.
‘Ānartam’ – Saturday 13th November 2021 at Curve Theatre
A dance festival celebrating Indian classical and contemporary dance styles.
Curve’s Associates Nupur Arts’ exhilarating annual evening of vibrant Indian Classical and Contemporary dance. Nartan Festival showcases high-quality dance work by several emerging and established artists around the country, reflecting the diversity of contemporary England.
More information on: https://nupurarts.org.uk/mevents/anartam/
Dvihīna, Sanskrit for ‘devoid of gender’, is an ensemble South Asian dance exploration with four diasporically‑trained Kathak dance artists of diverse gender expression.
Choreographed by Kathak artist Shyam Dattani, the piece features artists Anjali Tanna, Meera Patel, Tanveer Alam and Shyam himself. Dvihīna was selected for and premiered at The Place’s Resolution 2023.
The digital code of binaries collides and coalesces with the age-old vocabulary of Bharatanatyam in a fascinating new dance production by Mathangi Keshavan. 0s & 1s – REWIRED! is a transfer into the visual world of data with gigabytes of information punched out by dancers through footwork, recited syllables, and sharply etched hand gestures. Music of veena, vocal and percussion, under laid by an electronic score bring alive the kaleidoscope of movement patterns, while set design and futuristic costuming all combine to create an immersive experience.
It premiered as a part of Akademi’s curated South Asian event during at Stanley Arts’ Commons Festival.
Bharatanatyam dancer Suhani Dhanki explains her ghungroo (or anklet) and why she loves to wear it, on the popular children’s show What’s in your bag? for the BBC’s CBeebies channel.
#OurVarnam is a creative project gathering the Varnams of dancers across the UK into a curated online gallery. It aims to connect dancers of all forms but especially Bharatanatyam with each other and a wider audience.
The inspiration for this project is Divya Kasturi Company’s latest work, To Varnam…With Love, a story of love, devotion and commitment; to a god, to a myth, to a way of moving and being.
#OurVarnam will be a beautiful, heart-warming gallery of youthful talent and will encourage wider audiences to connect with our To Varnam…With Love performance.
Vittha-Mai – Vitthala, My Mother is a new work that subverts gender-normative perceptions of the specifically male deity – Vitthala, using poetry, music and dance. The 30-minute work is preceded by an animated prologue called ‘Nectar-in-a-Pod’, which gives context to the work – a must watch before the performance. Originally commissioned by Spirit of Margazhi Utsav and supported by Arts Council England, Akademi, Dance East, London Performance Studios and Sampad, Vitthai-Mai premiered digitally on 9 January 2023.
Benis Cheng, the Director of Hong Kong based Beyond Bollywood, invited us to partner in a residency exchange and research programme. Suba mentored and co-choregraphed a work that brought together 5 Beyond Bollywood dancers from the UK and Hong Kong. Between them, the dancers were trained in traditional Chinese dance, Bharatanatyam, and contemporary dance. The work Suba choreographed was performed as part of the Fold Festival in Worcestershire and at a festival in Greece. We also provided mentoring advice on organisational sustainability, strategic development and capacity building.
2022
Supported by Akademi, Velocities is a physical and reflective workshop for artists working in the South Asian dance genre to consider:
- How to grow their artistic practice from experience in community facilitation
- How to negotiate the unfortunate hierarchy between ‘community’ and ‘artistic’ work
- How to use artistic frameworks to broaden the idea of ‘inclusivity’ and ‘participation’
- How to ensure personal wellbeing while holding community spaces
The Artist Resourcing Day was held on 25 November 2022 at the Old Diorama Arts Centre and was led by the Velocities team, comprising of Shivaangee Agrawal, Meera Patel, Jane Chan and Takeshi Matsumoto.
Suba Subramaniam provided artistic mentoring to Payal Ramchandani for her new family work, Forest Dreams, due to premiere in Spring 2023.
The work, aimed at young audience particularly children aged 5‑14 years, highlights the urgency of climatic trauma that is befalling us due to selfish acts of deforestation and rampant industrialization. It is based on The Forest Dream (an adaptation of the book by Sophia Gohlz) and tells the true story of Jadav Payeng’s who was distressed by deforestation/erosion on his dying Majuli island (world’s largest river islands in the Bramhaputra river). Weaving in Carnatic music with western soundscapes, the production is a stylistic blend of Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi (both South Indian classical dance styles) and contemporary dance.
As part of Nartan Festival in 2022, Nupur Arts presented Ānartam, an evening celebrating classical Indian and contemporary dance. The evening featured Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Odissi performances by prominent dance artists such as Suhani Dhanki Mody, Anjana Bala, Kinga Malec, Shyam Dattani and Pallavi Basak, along with a performance Nupur Arts’ senior group of dance artists.
Ānartam took place on 15 October 2022, at Curve Theatre, Leicester.
2021
Commissioned by Akademi in partnership with Watermans, And Breathe is a climate change short film inspired by the newly introduced “Clean Air Zone’ in Birmingham and the negative reactions it generated as people were challenged with having to make changes to their habits and lifestyles.
Directed by Sima Gonsai and choreographed and performed by dance artist Kesha Raithatha, And Breathe was created as part of the Climate Change Screen Dance Commission. The film premiered as part of the Watermans’ Season for Change Programme in 2021 and has since been screened and nominated for several awards at several film festivals, with the most recent screening being at the COP27 conference.
Read Sima Gonsai’s interview with Akademi
Watch the And Breathe trailer
Co-commissioned by Akademi and Camden Council, Bedam is an ensemble, Kathak work choreographed by dance artist Shyam Dattani for the festival of lights, Diwali in 2021. The work also features dance artists Astha Desai, Mira Salat and Tulani Kayani-Skeef along with Shyam Dattani.
The first edition of Akademi’s Dance Film Festival (ADFF) took place online, 19–20 March 2021; supported by Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The Motion Dance Collective. Curated by screendance practitioner Omari ‘Motion’ Carter, and Akademi’s Artistic Director, Suba Subramaniam, the festival featured both new and archived South Asian dance-films, accompanied with selected talks with filmmakers and dance artists.
The films covered a wide range of topics from motherhood, the queer body and the commoditisation of identity, to India’s dream robot to the moon, amongst other thought-provoking subjects. Several of these films were a direct response to life in lockdown. Along with these, three short, original screendance works were also commissioned and showcased during the festival.
2020
In response to the shutdown of all live performance in 2020, we asked artists to submit proposals for work with South Asian dance at its core, which explored interesting and innovative ways in which audiences could continue to enjoy this art form in a situation where communities could not come together to experience dance in the same way. The recipients of our Seed Commissions in 2020 took their project ideas in a number of different directions, with two of the films eventually being featured in Akademi’s first ever online dance-film festival in early 2021.
In addition
Industry engagement
- Dance East Associate Artist selection panel
- Chaired a panel discussion on outdoor arts for XTRAX
- Arts and the Environment panellist for East London Dance’s Continuum Programme
- Hemantika festival selection panel
- Panellist for a Climate Change event organised by Wessex Museums about Art and Activism
- Suba was a judge for BBC Young Dancer Competition 2022, televised on BBC2.
- Attended a test event for Green Space Dark Skies in Wales.
- Attended a Wolverhampton University Arts Leadership symposium featuring midlands-based cultural leaders.