Haphazard journey to choreography

Mar 12 2008 by Philip Key, Liverpool Daily Post

THE Indian-born choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh admits she was a late starter in the dance world. “My route was unorthodox,” she says.

Arriving in Britain at the age of 17, she first took a degree in literature, specialising in Shakespeare studies. She danced in India as an amateur and continued in Britain in the same way as “more or less a hobby”.

But dance finally took over and for eight years she danced in a classical Indian style, mostly in solo pieces. Then she formed her own dance company. Now, 20 years later, the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Com- pany is rated as one of Britain’s finest contemporary dance groups.

And, as a birthday celebration, she brings her company to Liverpool’s Unity Theatre tomorrow in The Dancer’s Cut, part of the current Leap Dance Festival.

Within a year of forming her company, she explains, she had given up dancing herself. “Choreography is to do with looking and you can’t look if you are in your own piece.”

The company has changed radically over the two decades. “At the beginning, I was using only Indian classical dancers, and now use contemporary dancers from dance schools across Britain.

“A dancer’s background is not the main thing: I want people who are interested in making new work,” she says.

One of her newest pieces, Faultline, was staged at the Liverpool Empire recently as part of the British Dance Edition weekend, a large-scale piece using film, a curved screen and a singer as well as the dancers. It was impressive.

An extract will be included in the Unity show, but without the huge screen and singer.

“There will be works from the last four years with film, designed to work as an evening, not just bits,” she says of the birthday celebratory event.

Her dance pieces have been seen not only across Britain but on several overseas tours.

“It is very different from how I started. Today, working with film and other artists, it is all very complicated and I couldn’t have done it in the early days. With experience you learn to control all the elements.”

It has been a tough 20 years, she admits, but was there ever a time when she considered giving up the company? “Every day!” she laughs. THE Dancer’s Cut is at the Unity Theatre, tomorrow 8pm. Tickets £8 (concessions £6). Two for the price of one if you eat at The Quarter restaurant and take the receipt on the night. 0151 709 4988.

philkey@dailypost.co.uk