About Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company
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 nationally and internationally 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.
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'.
Shobana Jeyasingh > Artistic Director and Choreographer
Born in Chennai, India and now living in London, Shobana founded Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company in 1988. She has produced numerous works for the stage, theatre and camera. Her site specific work includes performances created for Greenwich Borough Hall [with a live web cast from Bangalore, India], the cafe at Waterman's Arts, Brentford, The City Hall, London as well as 2Step for twenty dancers on the steps of St Pauls performed as part of the Olympic Handover in August 08. Her recent commissioned works include Polar Sequences for Random Dance, Triptych for Canasia Festival, Canada, Pop Idle for Ricochet's Move Me Interactive Dance Booth, City:zen for City Contemporary Dance Company, Hong Kong and Breach for Ballet Black.
Shobana has received two Time Out Dance Awards, three Digital Dance awards, and her work Palimpsest was short listed for the Southbank Show Award. She was also a recipient of the London Music and Dance Award. Shobana was awarded an MBE in January 1995 for services to dance. She also holds an honorary MA from Surrey University and an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University, Leicester. She is a Research Associate at ResCen, the Centre for Research in Creation in the Performing Arts at Middlesex University and was awarded a NESTA Dream Time Fellowship in 2005, to visit China and Japan. In May 2008 she was named an Asian Woman of Achievement for her contribution to the arts in Britain.
