Observer Q&A

Shobana Jeyasingh: ‘Instead of a camera frame I have the stage’

 

The choreographer on her new work inspired by Egon Schiele, the changing world of dance, and the allure of film-making

‘When I started, there was a huge public confidence in funding for the arts’: Shobana Jeyasingh. Photograph: Amelia Troubridge

Staging Schiele is inspired by the work of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele. What drew you to him?
It was happenstance. During my research for my last piece, Contagion (2018), which was about the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, I went to an exhibition of Schiele’s work, and I realised he’d been a victim. He was only 28 when he died. He was very prescient. In much of his early work he was interested in the body as a corpse, with the potential for decay. This was what was happening in Europe, with the war and then the pandemic.

And he was an amazing graphic artist. He’s a brilliant amalgam of rigour of line and the emotional narrative that comes from those lines. Contemporary dance doesn’t have a story like ballet does, so choreographers are interested in the psychological landscape built out of elements like framing and line.

Schiele’s engagement with women interested me too. You mostly don’t see a great sense of autonomy from the painted nude – she’s neutralised by the painter. Schiele imparted a greater sense of agency, even though he painted women who were socially not very powerful – they were usually from working class or lower-middle class backgrounds.

Observer: Published October 2018

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