By Hemisha Morarji.
Aakash Odedra, rising star of South Asian dance, meets with Asian World newspaper to talk about his fusion of contemporary dance and the traditional Kathak and Bharatayam in a truly original performance that will bless stages across the UK.
The Dance Exchange studios, part of the Hippodrome Theatre, are the hub of dance in Birmingham. Not only does it hold dance classes for beginners and advanced movers, but it is also a place where professional dancers from all over Britain meet and collaborate to produce eye-catching pieces, be it an energetic tap dance, a swagger-filled hip hop routine or something in between. And it is here that Aasash worked with some of the best and innovative chorographers to produce ‘Rising’, a series of breath-taking pieces that combines ancient South Asian moves with the abstract presentation of contemporary dance.
My associate and I met the Spark Hill-born dancer at the stage where he will be performing the dances. The black walls resemble a foggy night as the place is clouded with haze, accompanied by five light-bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Sitting with me on the theatre seats, my associate is already shooting out questions about what the set pieces might symbolize when Aakash approaches us and leads us to one of the spacious studios, complete with glossy laminated floors and mirrored walls.
The 27 year old dancer appears serene, with a stress-free expression that tells me that he is not worried or nervous about his premier that night. And as we sit down to talk, his air of calm is made even more intriguing through his answers….
How long have you been dancing for?
I have officially been dancing since the age of eight. But who knows, it might have been before that, may be in the mother’s womb, hence all the kicking (laughs). But for me, dance is a relationship; you love each other, you fight, you can’t live with one another but at the same time you can’t live with one another.
What inspired you to become a dancer?
It has been a passion of mine ever since I was a young child. When I was three, I could walk on my toes and my family were like, “He’s going to be a dancer!” I don’t know, maybe I was a dancer in my past life and it has carried through to this one. But I also strongly believe that everyone is destined to do something. If you are supposed to be something, your destiny will take you there. So I believe I was destined to dance.
Is there any symbolic meaning behind the name Rising?
It’s a couple of things. Everything is rising, it comes from down, from the earth – even my career, it has started from nothing, and now it’s going up. There is something very optimistic and testing about the whole thing, hence the word rising. Also lot of my performances is very up, so my chorographers tried to make it very down, but the energy of my dancing is very uplifting.
Tell us about the contemporary Kathak you will be doing?
Everything about the piece is very traditional and honest, in the sense that it’s grounded in its roots. But it is also very contemporary in its presentation. It’s no longer in a mosque, the courts or temple, where it traditionally was, but rather in a theatre. So it’s no longer confined in a specific environment – it has changed, has managed to shift. So [it is] contemporary in the sense in its presentation, making it very relevant today.
Apparently this solo was choreographed by yourself. What inspired you?
There’s a lot of tension between Indians and Muslims. And I feel that art is something that freely expresses that and pierces through that. It doesn’t have to have a language. There are a lot of people who say that ‘we don’t do this in Islam’ or ‘we don’t do that’. But the Kathak, [although known as an Indian dance] is actually from an Islamic branch of dance and it has a union of two oppositions.
The other inspiration is that of surrender. Surrender to something that is beyond yourself, beyond all of these petty arguments [regarding religion]. So in a nutshell, it is the whole idea of surrender, the union between two faiths and also Kathak, Buddhism and spirituality all coming together.
The stage features light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. Is there any purpose behind that?
The choreographer took the meaning of my name, Aakash, which means sky and a lot of my movements see my hopping into the air. So he took the whole idea of the sky and the galaxy. The galaxy is very three dimensional, but when we look at it, it looks very two dimensional. So it was the whole idea of looking at something that is three dimensional but it appears two dimensional. We wanted to use that to highlight the relationship between one and many, that every action has a reaction, which is the whole idea of karma [one of the many Hindu belief systems].
The dances you will be doing include the Kathak and the Bhartanatyam. Can you tell us a bit about both?
The Kathak comes from the North of India and was usually performed in village squares and temple courtyards, telling stories from scriptures. The Bhartanatyam on the other hand comes from the South and was performed in temples. But this dance became degraded during the British Raj, because the British misunderstood its relationship between dance and sensuality. When they danced, it was so show their love and devotion to God, but that was misinterpreted as the seedy form of sensuality and that was why the dance became associated with prostitution.
