Dance performance has always been at the heart of Balbir Singh’s practice. His training in contemporary dance, and his subsequent – and ongoing – exploration of Kathak under the guidance of his Guru Padmashri Pratap Pawar, ensure that a choreographer’s eye is rarely absent from Balbir’s creative process.
Yet presenting dance in traditional settings was never going to be enough for an artist who needs his work to be seen.
As Balbir explains: “The audience for dance is small. And the audience for classical Indian dance is just a tiny a fraction of that. I had to do something that would enable the art form to breathe – to live. And that meant finding a way for more people to experience it.”
What flowed from this insight was an evolution of the company that took it out of the theatre and into communities – not just as ‘blank canvases’ on which to perform, but as living communities with experiences and stories to share. And as Balbir eagerly engaged and explored with them the shared histories and lore through which they make sense of the world, a new way of creating – or rather co-creating – work emerged.
