What makes someone English – and who gets to decide?

Dash Arts’ production Our Public House is inspired by The Tempest. This led to Shobana Jeyasingh participating in their ‘Albion’ podcast series, which explores what it means to be English.

In this episode of Off Script, Dash Arts’ Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, born in India, raised in Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and educated in the UK, whose internationalism has always been at the heart of her practice.

Shobana and Josephine explore what Englishness and Britishness actually mean, and why the tension between them matters. Shobana reflects on how English literature and a culture of open debate shaped her own values, even as she felt, in many ways, an outsider looking in.

At the centre of the conversation is Shobana’s production We Caliban, which draws on Shakespeare’s The Tempest to interrogate the encounter between non-European cultures and the colonising gaze of Prospero. It’s a work about empire, migration, and the questions that remain stubbornly unresolved. The Tempest is also the source material for Dash Arts’ forthcoming production, Our Public House.

Together, Josephine and Shobana make the case for why the arts, more than politics or policy, can hold the complexity that simple definitions of belonging refuse to.

Listen to the full podcast here.

For We Caliban, set and costume designer Mayou Trikerioti creates a striking visual world that shapes and frames the choreography, while visually stunning projections by Will Duke transform the stage into an immersive, ever-shifting landscape. Together, design and image work in dynamic harmony with the movement to deepen the work’s exploration of power, place, and colonialism.

Image: Set collage We Caliban © Mayou Trikerioti

For Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban, Shobana Jeyasingh collaborated with French composer Thierry Pécou to create a powerful dialogue between music and movement. Together they reimagined The Tempest through a contemporary lens, shaping a work in which dance and score intertwine to examine power, displacement and colonialism.

Portrait of Thierry Pécou © Sophie Dupressoir

In this video, Shobana Jeyasingh speaks about the influences that inspired the creation of We Caliban. She reflects on her response to The Tempest, the figure of Caliban, and the historical moment of early colonial expansion, revealing how these themes shaped the work’s movement, music, and visual world.

Photo: Shobana Jeyasingh and cast working on the creation of We Caliban © Foteini Christofilopoulou

In the summer of 2023 at Somerset House, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance worked with 18 early-career dancers to restage their 2010 production, Counterpoint, as part of our creative learning programme.

For many, it was their first professional engagement as a dancer, and provided a valuable first step in their new careers.

Watch the video here.

When you donate to Shobana Jeyasingh Dance, you become part of our close family of supporters. We love to show our gratitude and how you make a difference – and will keep you regularly updated and share our work at special behind-the-scenes events throughout the year.

In early May, we hosted a small event for our donors to share our choreographic process; and meet 2023 National Dance nominees and leading dancers from Clorinda Agonistes – Clorinda the Warrior, Jemima Brown and Jonathan Goddard.

The conversation was a deep dive into how they discovered their love for dancing, how they’ve grown their career and how their experience shaped their roles in our production.

Discover how Jemima and Jonathan were drawn to a career in dance; and how a childhood passion led them to become award-winning dancers:

Listen to Shobana, Jemima and Jonathan uncover the challenges they faced when unpacking the themes in Clorinda Agonistes – Clorinda the Warrior; and how their research and devised approach were vital for the production:

Want to become a part of our supporter family? Click here to discover how you can donate and make a huge difference to our company and contemporary dance.

Following our performance of Clorinda Agonistes in Oxford, at the end of our Autumn 2022 tour, Shobana Jeyasingh spoke to Professor Susan Jones about the inspirations before the production.

It was the energy of the baroque gem Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda that first drew choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, but its enigmatic heroine became an obsession. She explains why she has given Clorinda a new story – and an extra body.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/07/clorinda-agonistes-clorinda-the-warrior-shobana-jeyasingh-monteverdi-il-combattimento-di-tancredi-e-clorinda

The Free-sheet available for our production of Clorinda Agonistes – Clorinda the Warrior

CLORINDA AGONISTES Freesheet programme