Shobana talks to Michael Berkeley on BBC Radio 3 about her musical passions, and about her latest work, We Caliban, a nuanced exploration of themes around the colonial experience and of cultural integration, inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Listen on BBC Website (opens in a new tab).
Originally broadcast on 5 October 2025
‘As Shobana prepares to premier her new dance work at the Grange Festival, she tells us immersing herself in Monteverdi’s music’
Full the full article here: Gramophone, Shobana Jeyasingh interview, July 2022
Shobana talks to Shahidha Bari on BBC Radio 3 about Clorinda Agonistes having taken the heroine who fights Tancredi the crusading knight and reframed the story set to the music composed by Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento to discuss the idea about women as warriors and power brokers.
Listen on BBC Website (opens in a new tab).
Time stamp: 26:20
Originally broadcast on 12 July 2022
In this podcast Shobana Jeyasingh speaks to Pulse editor Sanjeevini Dutta about her memories of her guru Samraj Pillai, her journey as a choreographer and why being an artist is a political act.
Recorded and edited by Greta Zabulyte
Interview by Sanjeevini Dutta
Series produced by Kadam/Pulse
Made possible by National Lottery Heritage Fund
Shobana talks to Jeremy Grange on BBC Radio 4 about how she considers the vocabulary of hand movements – mudras – which express meaning and emotion in the style of dance she trained in, Bharatanatyam, and how these have inspired her current work in contemporary dance.
Listen on BBC Website (opens in a new tab).
Originally broadcast on 22 June 2021
It probably came as no surprise to many in the dance world that Shobana Jeyasingh was handed a CBE in the most recent honours list.
It was recognition of her considerable achievements, having created and established one of the country’s leading dance companies, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance (SJD) – which last year celebrated 30 years.
Jeyasingh, reacting to the award, told www.asianculturevulture.com: “I am really delighted to be included in this year’s honours list. I would like to thank the many who have supported my company over the years and believed in the capacity of the arts, and dance in particular, to be a force for good”.
Full Article here (opens in a new tab)
Acclaimed choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh MBE gives an insight into her work and creative process
by Maya Pindar
Shobana Jeyasingh MBE, choreographer and artistic director of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance has been creating dynamic and fearless work for 30 years. Shobana’s unique contemporary dance work is often described as ‘intellectual’ and ‘visceral’.
With Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s commitment to creating bold and uncompromising work, Maya Pindar asks this exceptional and prolific artist about ‘Material Men Redux’, her creative process and the challenges she’s faced in her career.
Tell me about the piece you created called Material Men Redux?
MMR is a work choreographed for two male dancers. They are both of Indian descent but have ended up in Europe, one working as a classical Indian dancer and the other as a hip hop dancer. The historical event that led to this migration was the British and European indentured labour system which was introduced to replace the end of slave labour. The work is part biography, part history and totally about two amazing performers.
This piece explores cross-cultural connections that are also visible in everyday British life, how does your own experience influence your work?
The simple fact that I am Indian and live in London puts me in a culturally hybrid context. Contemporary dance by its nature draws from the interest and experience of its creatives. I am interested in margins and centres and the dynamic dialogues between the two. For example, when I made a dance work for a science festival on cell division, I found myself drawn to the fact that that microtubules emerge from the margins to connect with chromosomes and that this journey was fraught with tension.
Can you tell me about your choreographic process?
Concepting the work and finding about its theatrical possibilities is probably the first step. Depending on what the subject is, this usually means reading, looking and thinking.
It’s also the time for talking to potential collaborators who will make the creative team. I usually try and have some sessions in the studio at a very early stage where ideas can be workshopped and some dramaturgical structure emerges – at least in theory! This is followed by the rehearsal period with the dancers. Movement generation through tasks is something that I find fascinating and stimulating. It’s always good to have the set in the studio at this stage . Composition is the key choreographic task and the most challenging. I am always aware that the things that work in the studio do not always work in the theatre. The period when we transfer the studio work to the stage and finally integrate all the aspects of design can be really exciting or incredibly depressing!
What influences or inspirations do you draw on when devising new work?
Books, films, exhibitions, talking…
Have you encountered any hurdles along your journey to becoming an internationally renowned British female choreographer, and how did you overcome them?
There are literally innumerable hurdles and I don’t think I have overcome them. The lack of trust and credibility is one of the major hurdles. These acts of discrimination are not tangible and hard to prove and discuss. Women’s creative territory has been historically circumscribed and such prejudices go deep and often unrecognised.
Do you have any advice for young aspiring choreographers, who want to ‘go against the grain’ with their choreographic work?
There is no option other than to stick at it! It’s always good to have some allies.
You have collaborated with many diverse artists over the years. Do you have an artist that is still on your collaborative wish list that you would love to work with in the future?
I would love to work with writers like Kazuo Ishiguro and a visual artist like Sam Taylor Wood (who is now known as Sam Taylor Johnson).
Finally, if you could meet your 16-year-old self, what one piece of advice would you offer her?
I would be tempted to say “Real life is not like a novel”. However I was determined not take any advice when I was sixteen so I probably wouldn’t bother!
Gail Bell asks experts and people in the public eye what keeps them going. This week: Indian-born Londoner and internationally acclaimed dancer choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh
1 Up and at it – what is your morning routine?
My schedule changes massively depending on whether I’m in production for a new show or not. If I’m choreographing, I’m up by 6.45am and might go straight to my laptop. If not, I might have breakfast and do my home exercise routine.
2 What might you eat in a typical working day for…
Breakfast? Always a cup of tea, followed by porridge and fruits.
Lunch? When in production, I take something into the studio – usually, whatever I had for dinner the day before. Today it’s mushroom pilaf.
Evening meal? I like to have a south Indian meal at least three times a week – though it depends where I am in the world. I recently spent three weeks working in France and after eating out in restaurants a few times, I found some lentils and rice and cooked for myself in the small kitchen I had there. It always has a normalising effect.
3 Is nutrition important to you?
Yes, definitely. I try to buy organic vegetables as much as possible. I’m not a big meat eater and feel healthy when on a vegetarian diet. For the last three years I’ve tried to eat a lemon, juiced, with grated ginger regularly, especially in the autumn when the weather is turning.
4 Best meal ever?
It would have to be my mother’s biriyani – a special occasion chicken dish with intense tastes and aromas. Even though she’s vegetarian, she always very kindly cooked it with meat and made her own spice mix from fresh ingredients which is where her signature flavour came from. She, like most Indians, cares deeply about taste and flavour and will go to great lengths to make food taste good.
5 Do you have a guilty pleasure?
Marrons Glaces [candied chestnuts] takes some beating.
6 Have you ever been on a diet? If so, how did it go?
I used to have two spoonfuls of sugar in my tea which is a very Indian habit. When I became more health conscious in my late 20s, I gave up on sugar. Generally, I don’t think my eating habits are organised enough to go on a diet.
7 Do you take health supplements?
No.
8 How do you relax?
I love to read and go for walks, although recently, I’ve been too busy to do either. Reading the obituary column in The Economist is an old favourite for some reason. It’s not because I am ghoulish, but more because their choice of people to remember is always surprising.
9 Teetotal or tipple?
I will have a drink at a party and sometimes a glass of wine at home, but not every day. The pleasure is that it’s not every day.
10 Stairs or lift?
Stairs – don’t like lifts unless they’re glass ones with amazing views.
11 Do you have a daily exercise regime?
I do gyrotronics and it’s a weekly regime. It’s best done one-to-one with a tutor. It has a three-dimensional view of the body which I like and is never mechanical. I always feel rejuvenated afterwards.
12 Best tip for everyday fitness?
Get to know what works for you and what will keep you interested.
13 On a scale of one to 10, how fit do you think you are and how fit would you like to be?
I’d say a five at the moment. I’ve been working seven days a week and travelling three hours a day. When this period is over, it will take me a month to get back to where I like to be: in the eight to ten region.
14 Have you tried, or would you try, alternative therapy?
I haven’t had acupuncture but I definitely appreciate a massage to keep the muscles smooth and unknotted.
15 Were school sports happy times or do you have a memory you would rather forget?
At the age of eight, at my boarding school in Sri Lanka, we had to choose between cricket or classical south Asian dance. I chose dance, while most of my classmates ran outside to play. At my secondary school in Malaysia they didn’t do dance and so I found out that I was actually quite a good runner.
16 Did you ever have a health epiphany which made you change your lifestyle?
I had an illness epiphany in 2000 when I developed Guillain-Barré syndrome. It’s a rare, but serious, auto-immune disorder in which the immune system attacks the sheath of healthy nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system, leading to weakness, numbness and tingling and paralysis. I was in a wheelchair for two-to-three months, then progressed to walking with two sticks. You just have to wait until it goes away. Now I very much appreciate the fact that I can walk and run up the stairs.
17 Best health/lifestyle advice you were ever given and would pass on to others?
My mother would always say, ‘You’re working too hard’, so I suppose it would be, ‘Take time out and enjoy life’.
18 Who inspires you or who would you try to emulate in terms of fitness / attitude to life?
A fantastic athlete who runs beautifully or a Brazilian footballer inspires me just as much as a dancer. Running is a beautiful activity to watch, specially in slow motion on TV.
19 What time do you normally get to bed and do you get enough sleep?
I often work late at night, but I try to get to sleep before midnight. I go to bed around 10.30pm/11pm and read or listen to something from Radio 4.
20 Would you say you have a healthy attitude towards your own mortality?
I know I’m mortal and I certainly am not expecting to live forever. One of my uncles, who was a doctor, chose to die at home rather than in a hospital. He stayed at home in his bedroom, surrounded by friends and relatives. He seemed to be very much in control of how he died and I always remember that. It was like witnessing the last movement of a symphony which was given the time to play itself out.
Eastern Eye: Shobana Jeyasingh’s Top Ten Dance Moments
Published on 4 October 2019
Legend: Amidst the many who populated the galaxy of dancing stars of the 1960s Tamil screen, Kamala Laxman was a bit different. She wasn’t the most beautiful nor the most glamorous, but my mother, who had seen her performances on stage when she was young, had already built her up into a legend. One holiday I found myself looking at a photo spread of her with her dance teacher and choreographer in a Tamil magazine. She was depicting various poses and moments as she translated the words of a lyric into movement. Even my child’s eye could see that this was a class act. The simplest and most hackneyed pose had that most elusive of all qualities – grace. Some very subtle adjustment of attitude or gaze, which I couldn’t analyse, gave even the static, not very well printed monochrome image a shimmering dynamic: a still moment that forever seemed to be in motion.
Greats: Michael Jackson and Fred Astaire – dance moments. Enough said.
Inspiration: While reading for a degree in English Literature, I came to love these words penned by TS Eliot in his poem The Four Quartets: “At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;/ Neither from nor towards; At the still point, there the dance is,/ But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,/ Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,/ Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,/ There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”
Wonder: The first contemporary dance performance that I saw was at the old Sadler’s Wells, probably in the late eighties. It was by Rambert Dance company and one for the dance works was a duet of a man and a woman. I was on the edge of my seat – I don’t know quite why. The intensity of it was gripping and I was struck by the fact that movement alone had made an eloquent and emotional narrative without the need for a story or lyrics.
Unison: When I was working in Beijing, I used to pass a park which had a group of people performing Tai Chi. It looked a great way to start the day. Dancing together is a priceless human activity. Most Indian classical dance is a solo activity and unison is most often reserved for Bollywood. Working with dancers in Beijing, I noticed how easily they danced in unison even when the movement was detailed and complex. They seemed to read and deliver movement as an entity. Unison is a very powerful tool.
Young talent: It was very rewarding being a judge for BBC’s Young Dancer competition. The generosity and affection of the competitors towards each other was heartwarming. The buzz backstage has to be experienced to be believed. A wonderful example of all that is best about dance.
Theresa May: I would have loved to have choreographed her entrance to the Conservative party conference. Is not often that a European politician uses dance to make a point.
Learning: I learned bharatanatyam for many years in Chennai in the traditional way – at the home of guru Valluvoor Samraj Pillai. It was taught one to one in a small room overlooking a road. Like many older buildings, the windows had bars going across. One summer we often saw the head of a small girl at the window. She would be clinging on for dear life, her unkempt hair rising like a halo around her face. Her feet were off the ground and rested on a tiny ledge below the window. We gradually realised that she was practising the steps that she saw through the bars; her face absolutely determined with concentration while she repeated the syllables that the teacher used to conduct in the lesson inside. We decided to ask her in and she astonished us all by doing a perfect sequence from the rep. It transpired that her parents worked on a nearby building site carrying sand on baskets up and down the fragile bamboo ladders – hard work in the hot Chennai sun. This little girl who was barely five or six years was obviously so talented in dance. Her motivation was astounding. Sadly, she moved on when the building was completed and I never saw her again.
Creation: Choreographing for sites where dance meets the audience away from theatres is something I enjoy. One of the most fascinating proposals I was offered was to choreograph cranes in Dublin. It was the idea of Michael John Gorman who was the then director of the science gallery in Dublin. My idea was to get all the numerous cranes in Dublin to stop working for an hour and only do choreographed movements together. I spent a day at a construction school in Norfolk learning about the types of cranes. Sadly, the financial crisis hit us and all the cranes moved to Dubai.
Encounter: Meeting Chennaibased choreographer Chandralekha and seeing her work, I was struck by her political vision for the body – a powerfully articulated body that was both contemporary and Indian.
Find the full article here (opens in a new tab)
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
Full Interview here (opens in a new tab)
Our e-newsletters include information about our work, events, fundraising appeals and learning activity. We’ll also send you occasional additional emails during tour periods featuring photo galleries, articles and trailers.