Newsletter | February 2021

From the Directors' Desks

Suba writes....
....Not going to lie. It has been tough. At times dauntingly so. But at other times, there have been so many wonderful things that have kept us feeling connected. Conversations with artists, participants, peers, friends, and others. Realisations of the huge gratitude we owe to all those out there who risk so much to make sure we are well physically, mentally and spiritually. Anticipations of what we can do to make things better once we get past just keeping on.

At Akademi, the key to so much that we've been doing is connectedness. One of my highlights has been our seed commissions artists sharing their work-in-progress on Zoom. The ideas included audio describing Kathak for visually impaired people, to films on motherhood, ghosts and pain, work for children and outdoor participatory work on environment. It was inspiring, moving and most of all, totally thrilling to see what wonderful work is happening out there.

Our artists have also been curating Dance Well Takeaways - bags with activity cards and small objects to help people engage with Indian dance forms from the comfort of their own spaces. Handing these over to The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Trust was wonderful, knowing that they were going to be given to patients in the wards and for staff wellbeing.

I am also really looking forward to our first-ever South Asian Dance Film Festival in March and can't wait to see the short films that our commissioned artists are creating. And it goes without saying, that without all the wonderful people who work at and with Akademi, none of this connectedness would be possible.

Kirsten writes....
....As for so many people, 2020 has been a tumultuous year for us at Akademi. I'd like to pay huge respects to our staff team and the artists we regularly work with, who have found such creativity and shown huge resilience in the constant planning, re-planning, back tracking and reimagining of projects as lockdown has unfolded.

I'm extremely proud of how we've pulled together and managed to find ways to reach our community members (through digital and blended delivery) and that there have been small but significant pockets of success. I'd also like to thank our partner schools, care homes, community centres and hospitals for working with us and for their recognition of the benefits of Akademi's South Asian dance and Heritage work for their participants.

Finally, our funders have been flexible and understanding for which I'm extremely grateful. As I write, there's snow on the ground, I'm trying to home school my daughter (!) and the headlines are still terrifying, so I'm not complacent, however I am proud of our communities' achievements and optimistic about 2021.

Highlights

Akademi Film Festival

Save the Date on 19 and 20 March 2021 - Akademi are hosting our first ever Screen Dance Festival. Curated by screen dance expert, Omari Carter, and our Artistic Director, Suba Subramaniam, the festival will feature new and archived South Asian dance films along with selected talks with filmmakers and dance artists.

Akademi has also commissioned three short original screen dance works. The aim is to increase the presence of South Asian dance in dance film festivals. The recipients of these commissions are: Archana Ballal, Jaivant Patel Dance and Kaajel Patel. Congratulations!

More information: Coming soon

Call Out for Artist Advisory Group

We are looking for 3 artists to join our new Artist Advisory Group to help shape Akademi's future. We want your input to help us fully understand the needs of artists and develop more collaborative models of working together. Artists will need to attend 4 meetings a year for a term of 2 years, along with one introductory meeting, and will be paid £150 per meeting.
Apply by 5pm on 22 Feb.

More info: Call Out for Artist Advisory Group

Job Opportunities at Akademi

Communications Manager (Maternity Cover)

You will take lead responsibility for Akademi’s communications and marketing for the duration of the maternity cover, with an emphasis on digital content.
Application deadline: Mon 8 Feb, 5pm.

Administrative Manager

The role will be responsible for the management of our administrative requirements alongside coordination of our L&P work, financial administration and communications support.
Application deadline: Thu 18 Feb, 5pm.

More info and application packs: Vacancies

What else is going on at Akademi

Akademi Heritage Project

Oral History Project

More than 30 pupils from Krishna Avanti Primary School (Harrow), Pagrav Dance Company and Sanskruti School of Dance are taking part in this project with oral historian, Laura Owen, and dance artists, Olivia White, Parbati Chaudhury, Krishna Zivraj-Nair and Linnea Husmann. Participants have collected precious oral testimonies from elderly family and community members, and used this experience to devise a choreographic response.

Chamu Kuppuswamy, from Pulse, observed a few zoom sessions and recorded her experience in an article: The Stories of Our Elders: Akademi’s Oral History Project

Students from PDC and Sanskruti will be sharing their movement responses, resulting from 6 sessions of R&D, at 10am on Sunday 28th February. There are limited audience places available at this sharing, so please fill in this form if you would be interested in joining.

More info: Akademi Oral History Project

Oral History Podcasts

Oral Historian, Laura Owen, has produced a series of podcasts with the participants of Akademi's Oral History project. They interviewed family, friends, and elders to find out stories about their migration, culture and memories. Some participants shared thoughts about their identity as an Indian child in the UK and how they remain connected with their South Asian heritage by engaging in music and culture.

Listen: Podcast Series

The project has even inspired one of our participants to start their own podcast:

"I recently partook in the Oral History Workshop Series by Akademi. I absolutely loved it and became so inspired by the concept of oral history as a way of capturing parts of history that I started my own podcast, along with a friend, on migration, culture and identity." - Shaili Desai.

You can follow the podcast on Instagram @migrationretraced to stay in touch with this amazing project.

Listen: Retraced: A Migration Story.

Heritage Performance Commissions

This new initiative sits at the intersection of choreography, community, and performance. It involves responding to an Akademi heritage object through a choreographic solo, and a workshop plan aimed at Key Stage 2 pupils. Three artists, Hiten Mistry, Jaymini Sahay and Sophie Holland, along with trainee artist Mansi Dabral Uniyal are working together to deliver their solos and workshops digitally at several primary schools in the coming months.

Along with our Learning & Participation Manager, Peter Laycock and Heritage Project Manager, Shivaangee Agrawal, the artists have developed a digital performance and workshop resource for schools.

If you are a teacher and would like to get the free Akademi Heritage performance resource and guide for your students, please contact info@akademi.co.uk

Archive cataloging

As we write this newsletter, our consultant archivist, Dr Ellie Pridgeon, is hard at work going through (nearly 40!) boxes of Akademi's archives, cataloguing each item, before these are sent to Victoria & Albert Museum.

The boxes contain exciting documents, flyers and photographs, some of which we hope to share on our website and social media in the coming weeks.

Akademi Seed Commission Sharing

On 19 November, our commission recipients came together, albeit over video call only, to share what they have been working on over this special summer. New connections were forged and experiences were shared.

More info: Akademi Seed Commissions

"The seed commission came to me at a time when all other doors were closed due to Covid19. It has been instrumental in allowing me to develop as an artist, create new work and stay connected with some amazing artists. I found the sharing very helpful because it gave me new ways to think of my work. This commission was also pivotal in securing further funding from the Arts Council, with which I will now be able to do the first proper R&D in the studio." - Krishna-Zivraj Nair

Reach Out and Reveal

We are delivering live online sessions at all three of our Reach Out and Reveal partner schools, reaching more children than ever before, thanks to the flexible approach from our artists Anusha Subramanyam and Emiko Ishii.

Dance Well

Our Dance Well Artists are currently delivering in multiple ways, through pre-recorded and live online sessions, for our community centre and hospital partners.

In order to connect with people who are offline, we have created the Dance Well Takeaway – a bag with activity cards and small objects to help people engage with Indian dance forms from the comfort of their own spaces. Two of our regular L&P artists, Priyanka Chauhan and Sophie Holland, devised and wrote the activity cards within the Takeaway, all based around easy to do exercises during daily activities using the provided items or household objects as props.

We have now delivered the first set of Takeaways to The Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Trust where they will be used for patient and staff wellbeing.

More info: Dance Well Takeaways

Freelance Task Force

Following its formation in June 2020, 169 members of the Freelance Task Force worked together from June until September 2020. Parbati Chaudhury was appointed by Akademi as a representative on this task force. In October 2020, an independent evaluation of this initial iteration of the task force was commissioned by Fuel Theatre.

Read: Evaluation report

What's on in our world of dance

Keep a look out for

Upahaar Workshop Series 2020-21

Upahaar School of Dance has invited renowned international artists of different Indian classical performing arts to conduct workshops online. This seven part series continues until April 2021 with a workshop a month. Each workshop also includes interactive Q and A sessions and a performance by the artist(s). Know more: Upahaar workshops

South Asian Dance Artists UK group

Kathak artist, Vidya Patel, has started an open South Asian community for dance artists within
the UK to connect, develop, network & progress collectively. Follow: @danceartistsuk_

Currently On

Manasamitra | Dewsbury 'not-the-fringe' Festival
Until 30 March
Local artists present exciting events, creating a mini-festival which showcases the diversity of the area featuring a range of art forms.

Amina Khayyam Dance Company | Catch The Bird Who Won't Fly
Watch on www.aminakhayyamdance.co.uk
A digital kathak dance-theatre performance bringing attention to domestic violence against women.

Coming Up

Sonia Sabri Company | Lok Virsa: Good Vibrations
Online festival from 15 - 21 Feb
Lok Virsa is a festival of free arts activities and workshops for all the family, celebrating some of the traditional and folkloric art rooted in the Indian subcontinent.

Sonia Sabri Company | New Spring Term of Music and Dance Online Classes
New 10 week term begins w/c 01 March 2021, featuring Kathak, Classical Bollywood & Tabla classes

Call Outs

Srishti @ 30 | Call Out for Performance Videos

Srishti is curating a special performance to celebrate its 30th birthday, broadcast by Harrow Arts Centre on 10 April 2021.

They are looking for UK based professional artists / companies and youth groups, whose work originates from any classical Indian dance or music tradition, to submit performance videos.

These should be from existing footage you have in your archives and no longer than 3 minutes. The video should be a high-quality professional recording of either a live or studio / tv performance. Participants will be offered a modest honorarium of £50 for their time in contributing to this event.

More info: Srishti @ 30 Call Out

Nupur Arts Youth Association | Gujarati Heritage project

NAYA are preserving and documenting the stories of people of all generations with a Gujarati background who are based in Leicester. They would love to hear your migration stories and what Gujarati culture means to you and your family.

You can share your story in any medium that you feel comfortable with: pictures, videos, voice recordings or a piece of writing. As a thank you for sharing your story you’ll also be given the chance to win a £30 Amazon voucher (draw system).

To register your interest simply:
Email: NAYouthAssociation@gmail.com
Call: 07801 365779
DM: NAYA on Facebook

Images (from top):
Akademi's Sapnay, 2006. Credit - Nicki Siani.
Akademi photoshoot, 2013. Credit - Pete Schiazza.
Education project at British Museum, 2004. Credit - Nicki Siani
Akademi's Waterscapes, 2004. Credit - Richard Houghton