In the way that colour-blindness fails anti-racism, Contemporary Dancers’ inability to pinpoint what it means to be a Contemporary Dancer deprives them of the possibility to examine their hegemony. They flail, already bored with the request to define their identity. As an outsider who’s now spent many years in Contemporary Dance studios, I can offer a non-exhaustive list of what it seems to mean to be a Contemporary Dancer…
Read MoreIndian Dance: Articulations/Tensions/Negotiations with Mandeep Raikhy
Watch a durational online session with Shivaangee Agrawal and Mandeep Raikhy discussing the embodiment of Indian dance in our current world. Based on their artistic practices and concerns, they invite diverse perspectives from guests across India and the UK
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While not being able to fully answer these questions, I felt there was a level of integrity brought about by our commitment to the non-visual experience of dance, simply for ourselves and for the richness of our individual practices. When we stopped trying to 'do this for them' and started 'doing this for us', and being led by our personal investment in challenging the dominance of the visual, things began to feel more authentic, less contrived and more full of possibility.
Read MoreThe Labour of Complaining: a murky, paradoxical and gaslighty experience
In our post-blacklivesmatter 2021 arts landscape in the UK, you could be forgiven for thinking that many institutions have changed, that marginalised identities are being given more space, that anti-racism is becoming centre-stage. And yet, when I try to voice a whiteness-related concern with an institution, most often they reply with a link to their webpage on anti-racism and diversity. Whose job has actually got easier?
Read MoreSpeaking Across Lanes: Co-written with Katye Coe
Swimming is the only time that I feel fully held by the world around me. There’s something about a complete immersion of my body in the water, something about how sound too becomes distorted and other-worldly, how every part of my skin is kissed and touched
Read MoreInside the Institution: The Place
“The unpredictability of what will happen is what makes something alive. It is not about trying to recreate aesthetics or trying to make what people expect you to be making.”
Read MoreSamsara: A major new international collaboration
“When we were choreographing this production, we didn't know exactly what we were going to do, and it was on the way to the core of this work that we found out what we wanted to present.”
Read MoreFreelance Dancer Guides
A series of guides that speak to the freelance dance artist living and working in the UK. Shivaangee interviewed practitioners and compiled these features, on topics ranging from managing bodies to managing money.
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