Just Add Water? Press Release
THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY
Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh Cooks Up a Beguiling Banquet of Dance at Corn Exchange, Newbury
Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh cooks up a beguiling banquet of dance at the Corn Exchange, Newbury on 25 March 2010 with her hit work Just Add Water?
The British love affair with all things culinary is given a unique spin in Shobana Jeyasingh’s Just Add Water? In a world where differences between people can cause friction, this exhilarating dance work reminds us that cross-cultural eating is one of the true success stories of our time. In words by playwright Rani Moorthy, the six exceptional dancers add their memories of home cooking to a fast-paced and virtuoso evening of dance. Familiar ingredients are shaken and stirred - ballet served with a dash of mango chutney, Indian classical dance livening up a slice of sweet pumpkin pie. Orlando Gough’s sound score blends, bubbles, boils and simmers while Dick Straker’s visuals including film projects of food further whet the appetite. Lucy Carter (lighting) and Christina Cunningham (costumes) complete the creative team.
Founded in 1988 and funded by Arts Council England, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company has produced imaginative, innovative and critically acclaimed work which has given cultural diversity a unique spin, offering insights into the current and critical agendas of national identity and social integration. The company's work features the work of a wide range of collaborators for design, music, film and theatrical use of new technologies. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company has successfully promoted dance as a medium for engagement and entertainment for theatre goer and student alike.
Working across the whole scope of dance from middle scale tours, through studio performances to major festival projects (often outside or in new buildings), the company tours nationally and internationally, including visits to Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and New York as well as all the major European cities. Internationally recognised, Shobana Jeyasingh has captivated and engaged audiences for twenty years with her dynamic, fearless and enigmatic choreography. She is in constant demand as a choreographer for other companies and her work for other commissions is a significant part of the company's output.
With inspiration derived from different personal and historical origins, boundaries and beginnings, Shobana Jeyasingh's choreographic signature is the journey from classical to contemporary in dance, image and music. Adventurous and experimental, Shobana has pioneered collaborations with some of the most exciting musicians and artists of our times. The company has commissioned many new pieces of music, now heard round the world. These include Michael Nyman's String Quartet No. 2 (Configurations), as well as work with contemporary favourite Kevin Volans.
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company draws dancers from Britain and abroad most recently from Malaysia, USA, Italy, India and Spain. Dancers are valued creative collaborators in the studio during the making of the dance work as well as performers on stage. The Just Add Water? dancers are Jose Agudo, Avatâra Ayuso, Kamala Devam, Noora Kela, Mavin Khoo, with one more to be announced.
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company has a long history of imaginative education work both in schools and in the wider community. It offers apprentice placements for appropriately qualified dance students. The company's education team delivers a range of workshops, technique classes, and residencies for all ages and levels. Many of these activities feature company dancers, several of whom are skilled and experienced teachers. Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company was the winner of the Prudential Award for the Arts and was the subject of the BBC documentary 'Inbetween'.
See ajoining for Q&A with the company. For a video of Shobana Jeyasingh talking through the creative process that formed Just Add Water? visit the Corn Exchange website.
Just Add Water will be at Corn Exchange, Newbury on Thursday 25 March at 7.45pm. There will be a post show discussion and tickets are £13 (£11 concs). For more information about Just Add Water?, visit www.shobanajeyasingh.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Just Add Water?
Q&A for dancers
Avatâra Ayuso
1. How old are you? 28
2. Where were you born and where do you live now? Born in Madrid living now in London
3. One of the themes of Just Add Water? food and cooking… What’s your favourite type of food or your favourite meal? Anything that is cooked well, and has beautiful and inspiring colours is good for me. But above all it has to be and feel healthy
4. What are the best and worst things about being on tour? The best: to know you might inspire people from different countries/cities/cultures with our show. The worst: not being able to eat as well as I do when I’m at home.
5. What inspired you to become a dancer? The everyday challenges in the studio and the magic that is created in a performance situation.
6. If you weren’t a dancer what else would you have liked to do? Many things. I couldn’t chose one, but for sure something that involves travelling and knowing people from other cultures.
7. What music do you like to listen to? All styles from classical to hip hop.
8. What’s your favourite film and why? Difficult to chose just one. I would take at least Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927) and 2046 by Wong Kar-wei (2004).
9. What’s your ideal Friday night? Having a dinner out in a Japanese restaurant and going to the theatre afterwards.
10. Who or what do you find inspiring? Anything that is around me inspires me from the buildings to little objects, people walking in the street, colours, smells, even things that I don’t like can give me another perspective of what is life.
11. If you had one wish what would it be? To be able to live as intensely as I’ve done until now with those that I love.
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Just Add Water?
Mavin Khoo, dancer
Q&A
1. How old are you? 33
2. Where were you born and where do you live now? I was born in Malaysia. I’ve lived in London since 1994.
3. One of the themes of Just Add Water? is food and cooking… What’s your favourite type of food or your favourite meal? My favourite type of food is Malaysian.
4. What are the best and worst things about being on tour? The best thing about being on tour is having the constancy of performance. The body feels in tune and you live your dream of being a performer. The worst thing is missing your home!
5. What inspired you to become a dancer? Hard to say. I started so young! But I guess moving and emoting to music.
6. If you weren’t a dancer what else would you have liked to do? Been a psychologist.
7. What music do you like to listen to? Very specifically: a) Western classical music b) Indian Classical music and c) deep/electro house
8. What’s your favourite film and why? Whatever Happened to Baby Jane…I love Bette Davis.
9. What’s your ideal Friday night? A nice, ‘gentle’ warm up to Saturday night!
10. Who or what do you find inspiring? Teachers who are generous to give. I respect them the most and am more humbled by them than anyone else.
11. If you had one wish what would it be? That’s an endless list!
Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
Just Add Water?
Noora Kela, dancer
Q&A
1. How old are you? 28
2. Where were you born and where do you live now? I was born in Finland, Helsinki and now I live in London
3. Just Add Water? is all about food and cooking… What’s your favourite type of food or your favourite meal? Prawn and scallop red curry
4. What are the best and worst things about being on tour? Best things are travelling and not having to pay for it and seeing different places where you wouldn't normally go. Worst not having enough time to see things. Well, it's not a holiday I suppose!
5. What inspired you to become a dancer? It was kind of an accident, something that I enjoyed doing but now when I look back I have no idea what happened and how I ended up being a dancer.
6. If you weren’t a dancer what else would you have liked to do? I cannot remember what I wanted to do as a child. I think the brain has got rid of all the information that has not been used for a long time! What I would do now instead of dancing is to have an alternative therapy practice/b&b in southern France.
7. What music do you like to listen to? Varies from Vivaldi to the Kings of Leon.
8. What’s your favourite film and why? Volver...Penelope Cruz is amazing.
9. What’s your ideal Friday night? In the summer, a barbecue with friends. In the winter glass of red wine a good film and a warm blanket.
10. Who or what do you find inspiring? People who find life positive and enjoyable and try to help others even after a tragedy or catastrophe.
11. If you had one wish what would it be? To erase one of the sad basic instincts of human nature - greed.
For interviews, further information or images please contact Ruth Cadiot at ruthc@cornexchangnew.co.uk or 01635 582666 ext. 248 or Verity Shaw veritys@cornexchangenew.co.uk ext. 249