News
Seeta Patel visits Portugal teaching Intensive Bharatanatyam Course
An invitation from EKA [ dance company ] took Seeta to Lisbon - Portugal. This beginners introduction in the Indian Classical Dance form of Bharatanatyam took place at EKA [ palace ]. From 27th to 30th June, Seeta talked about the history of the art form and her current work, tought basic footwork and hand gestures, some hints on abhinaya, work with rhythm and sanskrit poems. She found an enthusiastic group that had a great experience.
"I loved it too much. Such a professional dancer, i just loved the experience. I felt an amazing energy there!" - Tiago Santos
"The intensive body and mind work in these hot days was hard but totally worth it! Seeta is an amazing dancer and she knows how to inspire others through her teaching." - Eurica Magan
Read the article written by the respected Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, both in Portuguese and translated into English.
Speaking at: The BENCH | Navadisha | [FRAME]
Seeta was invited to speak at three exciting events this Spring: The BENCH Event, Navadisha 2016 and [Frame] The London Dance Film Festival
The BENCH Event
2Faced Dance Company presented the first ever BENCH Event, in partnership with IDFB 2016. The event reflected on the achievements of 2Faced Dance’s BENCH programme over the last 9 months and included debate and conversation surrounding the issue of gender disparity for female choreographers working in the UK’s contemporary dance sector. The event featured inspirational speakers, presentations from the current five BENCH Fellows and a debating panel of industry experts.
Navadisha 2016
Produced by New Dimensions Arts Management in partnership with Sampad Arts, the three day conference posed questions that were crucial for South Asian dance today, as it celebrates breakthrough achievements and exciting developments in and around the sector during the fifteen years since Navadisha 2000. Navadisha 2016 fired up debate about the state and status of South Asian dance in Britain’s cultural cosmos, and the changing nature of its dance audiences; it also uncovered new talent, new models of excellence and new ways of working with dance in all its many avatars.
[Frame]
FRAME: The London Dance Film Festival took place from 09 to 12 June 2016 offering an opportunity for creative talent in the arts, dance and film worlds to share experience, show work, learn from other artists and enjoy the best that dance and dance film offers.
The Company of Elders presents Seeta's 'Fragments, Not Forgotten'
Seeta was very happy to present her work Fragments, Not Forgotten on The Company of Elders (Sadler's Wells) at several events around London this year -
Lilian Baylis Studio, RFH (Southbank) and City Hall amongst others.
In Fragments, Not Forgotten, Seeta Patel uses the words of the company to create a delicate work of haunting moments and fleeting images.
'Intense focus, pacing and imagery' - Josephine Leask, londondance.com
The House of In Between
Seeta is really looking forward to working as the choreographer for a new theatre play at Theatre Royal Stratford East next month.
Uma is the leader of the Hijra clan and is desperate to protect her house and preserve their ancient traditions. When Dev arrives, Uma sees a chance to erase the sins of the past and ensure the clan's survival. But will Uma's act of charity destroy the clan as Dev tries to fulfill a destiny no one expected? With traditional Indian music and dance, the modern world meets mystical India in this intriguing story exploring the sacrifices people are willing to make to forgive themselves and be seen.
Written by Sevan Greene and directed by TRSE associate director Pooja Ghai, Seeta will form part of an exciting creative team.
See more at:
The House of In Between
UK Autumn Tour of Something Then, Something Now coming soon!!!!!
It's with great pleasure the UK Autumn tour of Something Then, Something Now will kick off at the incredible Darbar Festival on Sunday 20th September and continue to Wolverhampton, Derby, Swindon, Bournemouth and Bristol. Huge thanks to Arts Council England who have funded the tour. Watch this space for more information including venues and booking details.
Nurturing exciting young talent
This year sees Seeta in the privileged position of being able to work more and more with young dancers, nurturing, mentoring and supporting them with the benefit of her experience and the generosity that she has experienced through her teachers over many years.
Here is Lakshmi Ranjan, one of the talented South Asian Category finalists for the BBC Young Dancer Competition talking about her work with Seeta:
"Having had some technical intensives with Seeta, it can be clear to say that I am now a changed dancer. I was able to view and practice Bharatanatyam from a completely different angle in every step that was explored. I gained the most from the short technical patterns that were choreographed to different rhythmical gaits. Here, Seeta really went through the dynamics and characterisation of each step from head to toe, as well as the various ways of keeping the audience on edge with expecting the unexpected. It was definitely challenging to learn the technical patterns because they were very different to the conventional patterns that I was used to. So, in that aspect Seeta really helped me develop the ability to not stick to boundaries and be free yet controlled with the movement. All in all, I can be sure to say that every class pushed me to my limits and most of all made realise how the dimensions to Bharatanatyam are quite simply limitless."
Dance UK Mentor - Alistair Spalding
I'm very excited to announce that Alistair Spalding, CBE, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sadler's Wells will be my mentor as part of the the Dance UK 2014/5 mentoring programme.
Here is a little info about him and the great work he has done:
Under Spalding, Sadler's Wells has become the UK's leading dance house, presenting an ambitious programme of cutting-edge dance in all its forms and hosting world-class national and international companies and artists, such as The Forsythe Company, Pina Bausch Tanztheatre Wuppertal, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Matthew Bourne's New Adventures and Wayne McGregor I Random Dance. The theatre welcomes audiences of over 500,000 across its three London venues and attracts touring audiences of over 100,000 each year.
In 2005, he announced his vision for Sadler's Wells to become a producing house. He has since driven the commissioning, producing and co-producing of more than 90 shows, including acclaimed cross art form collaborations zero degrees, PUSH and Sutra. In the last nine years, Sadler's Wells' productions have toured to 233 venues in 164 cities across the world.
Spalding also created the position of Associate Artist at the theatre. There are currently 16 Associate Artists, 3 Resident Companies and 1 Associate Company, representing the most exciting talent working in dance today.
He has initiated a number of ground-breaking annual festivals, including the critically acclaimed international festival of hip hop dance theatre Breakin' Convention, as well as new initiatives such as the Composer Series and Sadler's Sampled.
Spalding's first job in arts management was at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley, where he was a programmer from 1988 to 1994. Between 1994 and 2000 he was Head of Dance and Performance at the Southbank Centre in London. He has been responsible for the artistic programme at Sadler's Wells since February 2000, when he joined as Director of Programming, before becoming CEO and Artistic Director in October 2004.
He was appointed as a national member of the Arts Council England in 2009, and a member of the Arts Council England Advisory Panel between 1995 and 2003. He was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2005. He was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2012, for services to dance.
Something Then, Something Now heads North West
Something Then, Something Now is on it's way to Liverpool and Manchester with the support of Milapfest.
The work will be showing at the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool on May 16th and at The Lowry, Salford on May 17th.
For tickets go to:
http://www.milapfest.com/events/seeta-patel-something-then-something-now/
BBC Get Creative - Why Dance Matters
As part of the BBC's Get Creative Initiative, Sadler's Wells hosted a panel discussion about Why Dance Matters.
Panelists: Carlos Acosta, Kenneth Tharp, Jonzi D, Seeta Patel and Pam Zinkin
For BBC News London Coverage visit: https://vimeo.com/123340814
BBC Young Dancer of the Year
I am very excited to be invited as a second round judge for the first year of the BBC Young Dancer competition.
As a parallel endeavour to the BBC's long running Young Musician of the Year competition, this initiative is about high quality dance.
In association with Sadler's Wells and a wide range of experts and judges including Akram Khan, Tamara Rojo and Alistair Spalding to name a few, I am very happy to be apart of a great team championing excellence in dance.
The categories are Ballet, Hip Hop, Contemporary and South Asian (Bharatanatyam/Kathak).
I am looking forward to attending the live performances for the second round of the competition at the mac in Birmingham on Monday 15th December 2015, and finding the 5 special dancers to go through to the next round.