Shobana Jeyasingh Dance: Material Men & Strange Blooms

Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, Church Street, Tuesday, October 6

AT the centre of Shobana Jeyasingh’s new work Material Men is the very unmasculine piece of traditional Indian clothing – the sari.

The long cloth is used to help unite the two dance styles performed by bharathanatyam soloist Sooraj Subramaniam and hip hop choreographer Shailesh Bahoran.

“I wanted something visible that communicated what the dancers had in common, which is their historic ties to India,” says Jeyasingh. “On one level it looked like they were both sons of the same place, as they are both wrapped in it. People look at the sari as memory, as symbolising India, as a placenta that gives birth to these two men. It’s an object of tension between the two men, and an object of partnership.

“It’s an iconic piece of clothing – it’s the oldest, untailored piece of clothing that is still worn. The sari has proved so tough and versatile that it’s stood the test of time. You see women on building sites climbing up ladders, or in villages with people planting, or in offices or call centres, and the sari seems to have given them a commonality.”

Material Men forms just half of the south Indian choreographer’s visit to Brighton.

The second half of the performance is her 2013 piece Strange Blooms, which was performed by an eight-strong ensemble as part of the company’s 25th anniversary. It takes inspiration from the cellular life of plants.

“Both pieces celebrate journeys,” says Jeyasingh. “In Strange Blooms what we see if the pre-destined stories of plants. They move and act in ways they don’t have a choice – that’s what they are programmed to do. Material Men is about human stories which are much more accidental – they’ve got more choice and are much more vulnerable to historical changes, so the two pieces offer up two different types of journeys.”

She admits to fitting easily into the narrative of Material Men, which was inspired by the experiences of the two dancers.

“Like Shailesh and Sooraj I’ve also experienced dislocation,” she says. “I went from India to Sri Lanka to Malaysia to London.

“Material Men is about the journey – leaving an original culture and finding this place which is urban but not pure. It’s where you have to contend with many different types of movement, of culture, of dance, but somehow in that mix finding something coherent.”

The piece was inspired when Jeyasingh was introduced to Bahoran by the Southbank Centre’s former head of performance and dance Wendy Martin.

“What I found interesting about him was that he was an Indian who had never been to India,” she says. “His family had moved from India to Suriname as part of the huge migration of labour that happened under the European colonial powers.”

She introduced him to Subramaniam whose parents had moved from India to Malaya for the same reason.

“Both dancers found themselves living in Europe, both are products of this huge mass migration of labour,” she says, pointing to the regular cycles of mass migration in history.

“What interested me is that these two men chose two very different dance styles to perform in.

“Shailesh saw hip-hop once in a shopping mall in Utrecht and just fell in love with it. Sooraj chose Indian classical dance because his grandfather has been interested in classical arts.

“When I first put them in the studio I wasn’t sure they’d even get on as people as they didn’t know each other very well and were two very different kinds of young men.

“I think they found the different styles quite inspiring, because they are so diametrically opposite.”

The pair are dancing to a new score by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin, which will be performed live by The Smith Quartet. Additional sound design comes from Leafcutter John.

Jeyasingh first came across Kats-Chernin’s piece of music Clocks ten years ago.

“She, like the dancers and myself are all products of some kind of huge migration,” says Jeyasingh. “She’s a Russian who has settled in Australia so there’s a lot of empathy and understanding about the concept behind the work.

“Leafcutter’s work I heard a few years ago when he was playing with a string quartet. I was really interested in the way he changed some of the qualities of the quartet to give it a 21st century digital world to live in. The string quartet have a very historic feel – but the important shift in the story is provided by Leafcutter’s electronic music.”

Starts 7.45pm, tickets from £12.50. Call 01273 709709.

Interview by Chris Challis