News

Seeta Patel Dance was successful in its bid to become a National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) with Arts Council England.

This vital support will mean the company will be funded for the next 3 years!

As a small organisation/charity, it has been a constant struggle to try and create ambitious and important work for so many years. This support will give us the resource and stability to reach more people and have an even greater impact on the arts landscape.

We look forward to creating more high quality work, reaching diverse audiences, supporting South Asian talent, advocating for a more equitable arts world in the UK and internationally.

Watch this space for more exciting developments as we take this next step in our journey!

URGENT

BLACK LIVES MATTER RESPONSE:
SUPERPOWERS

(Please take the time to read to the end - we need to stop only reading the headlines)

In my little part of the world (and let’s face it, dance is a tiny part of this giant world), I’m in conversations with a lot of future leaders.

There are difficult conversations being had.

There is a lot of defensiveness, fear, silence, hopelessness, self-preservation and more happening.

I don’t want to say apathy, but more a build up of inaction that so desperately wants to be action, but doesn’t know how to manifest.

The outcome of this is not inaction. It is COMPLICITY in a system that is broken.

Step by step I’m learning what my superpowers are in this situation.

My superpower feels like throwing myself in to lots of fires. Some tiny. Some huge.

The purpose for doing this is to try and incite change. I do it knowingly. I’m absolutely terrified. And now I’m ready to deal with the consequences.

For a long time now, I’ve felt guilty that this was my superpower. That it was too aggressive, it was ‘intense’, that I’m full on, I should watch my tone and delivery, that the way I do things isn’t coming from a place of love.

I have actually been told these things, and I internalised them.

But I know it is coming from a place of deep love. And love isn’t always gentle. Sometimes love is fierce and wants to burn everything down because no one is listening and nothing is changing.

But I don’t feel guilty anymore.

What I am noticing is that there are many out their who don’t realise what their superpower is. Or how to use it for good.

Gentleness is a superpower.

The ability to charm and convince charismatically is a super power (trust me I wish I had it).

Calmness is a superpower.

I could go on but you get my drift.

So what we need now is not to feel impotent and powerless.

It’s time to look deeply and see what your superpower is.

And ask how it be used to push things forward in these difficult times.

I completely understand people need to ‘heal’ and look after their mental health, I would never ever say not to do that first and foremost.

But that can’t be the never ending default.

I’m sorry but it’s not good enough.

Especially if you are in a position of power and influence and leadership.

What is the plan after the space of healing you may need?

How can you do something amazing with your superpower?

Once you face the ugly bits of yourself, they parts that you know make you complicit in the problems we are facing, what’s the next part?

It doesn’t have to be plastered on social media (unless is helps you into action to do that).

It doesn’t need to be huge and grandiose.

The fears I’m seeing out there in the defensive responses to challenges are deep. Tiny but powerful seeds.

They need deep and powerful and maybe quiet weed killer.

If you feel the need to justify your silence/your reasons for not taking action/the need to step away. Anything. Then ask yourself what will happen after this self justification.

What was the purpose of this self justification (other than to make yourself feel less guilty)?

How can I move forward from my guilt and frustration and use my superpower.

Might it be that you can have a more fruitful conversation that challenges someone in a way they don’t feel threatened?

Be brave and do it.

This is GREAT! USE IT TO KEEP PEOPLE LIKE ME FROM SCARING EVERYONE.

Is it that you know someone struggles to be called out by a person of colour but maybe they will hear a white person.

This may feel totally ridiculous but trust me it is happening.

WE ALL HAVE A SUPERPOWER.

Now it’s just time to use it for change and for good.

Take the time you need to be silent/heal/think/learn etc. But don’t let it linger forever.

PLEASE!

People like me need your help. I have a voice that many will never be able to hear.

But they may hear yours instead.

FEEL POWERFUL. YOU ARE.

PS. Leaders and future leaders. LEAD. Take the LEAD. PLEASE don’t let it always be the minority voices, the people on the receiving end of the discrimination that have to do the calling out.

You can bring it up so we don’t have to all the time.

It makes us the bad guy whether you agree with that or not.

And it also makes us tired.

Download
Resource document

After receiving a Choreogata Commission of £5000 in 2017 from Akademi, Seeta was able to create an excerpt of the iconic Rite of Spring with 5 international Bharatanatyam dancers. This lead to a great deal of interest and a subsequent successful bid to mount the entire work with a cast of 6 exceptionally talented Bharatanatyam dancers. The work is currently in development and will be premiered and toured across the UK in May 2019. Watch this space for tour dates.

Gandini Juggling explore the world of Bharatanatyam dance with award-winning Bharatanatyam artist Seeta Patel

Gandini Juggling have a reputation for innovation - pushing the boundaries of their art form by combining contemporary circus with dance and narrative. The resulting productions have challenged perceptions of what juggling is and can be and have forced the threshold of the genre in its own unique direction.

Sigma is an opportunity to further explore these dialogues and showcase the multiplicity between Bharatanatyam dance, juggling and percussion. Developed in partnership with Seeta Patel, a specialist in Bharatanatyam, dancer Indu Patel and Kati Ylä-Hokkala & Kim Huynh - pioneering jugglers from Gandini Juggling -, the work investigates classical Indian geometries, mathematics, and rythm by looking at similarities and differences, processes and choreographic architectures. There is also a focus on the parabolic accelerating velocity of objects in the air versus the more subtly changing speeds of the dancer and the underlying Carnatic musical structures.

The human side of the collaboration transcends the pure structure and looks at invented ethnologies and imaginary rituals, when both Bharatanatyam and juggling come with a myriad of associated archetypes. Gandini and Patel are keen to play with these ideologies, distort them and intermingle them and then inhabit the hybrid landscapes in which they are created.

TOTAL THEATRE AWARD FOR VISUAL THEATRE
ASIAN ARTS AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTING
ARCHANGEL HERALD AWARD 2017

Sigma premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2017, where it was received in awe:

‘IT LOOKS, AND IS, EXQUISITELY BEAUTIFUL’
★★★★★ The Herald

‘A SHOW THAT IS QUIETLY MESMERISING’
★★★★ The List

‘ASTONISHING SKILLS IN A CLEVER AND ENGROSSING PIECE’
★★★★ The Stage

‘SIGMA IS NOT YOUR USUAL JUGGLING SHOW AND IS ALL THE BETTER FOR IT’
★★★★ Broadway Baby

‘A TRULY ARTFUL MASH-UP OF DISTINCT SKILLS’
★★★★ The Times

The show will be at Sadler's Wells in January 2018 as part of the mime festival:

http://mimelondon.com/gandini-juggling-sigma-2018

Co-produced by: London International Mime Festival (UK)
Supported by: Watermans Theatre (UK)