CASE STUDIES
Daksha Sheth at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Daksha Sheth Dance Company (India)
BhuKham
A production by Daksha Sheth and Devissaro
Photo and courtesy: Devissaro
The Daksha Sheth Dance Company (combining traditional martial arts, Indian kathak dance and contemporary dance) performed at the St Stephens venue as part of the Café Direct aurora nova festival for the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Whilst on their run, they kindly took time out to give Visiting Arts an interview about themselves and their experiences in Edinburgh during the Festivals period.
John
Kundu (JK): When did you first hear about the Edinburgh Festivals?
Daksha
Sheth (DS): I must
have heard about the festivals now for 30 years. Everyone who has come
here, seen it or even just heard about it were all saying "it was
one of the greatest festivals in the world". So as an artist, it
was always at the back of my mind was this idea that 'you're not an artist
until you have performed at the Edinburgh Festival!' So when Sanjoy asked
us to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it was like a dream come
true. I've always wanted to come here, so I was very excited when we got
the news.
Devissaro
(DV): I first
heard about Edinburgh back in the early 80s' when Daksha and I met Ram
Gopal, a great Indian dancer who had performed in the Edinburgh International
Festival in the 1950s. In his day Ram Gopal was a huge international sensation,
after Uday Shankar possibly the most renowned Indian dancer ever! When
we met him he was old and forgotten, but he showed us books and pictures
of him performing at the Festival. Edinburgh was the yardstick by which
he measured his success.
JK:
How do you find the City of Edinburgh in general?
DS: Edinburgh
is so beautiful! I've not seen much of Scotland, but I am truly fascinated
by Edinburgh. It has this incredible 'old-style' architecture which is
evident in the buildings and the roads. It's extremely fascinating; I
have not seen a place like this before.
DV: Daksha
and I have been to Stockholm, which is another extraordinarily beautiful
city, and at the time we thought that Stockholm was the most beautiful
city we've been too, but Edinburgh gives it a run for its money. They're
both beautiful, but Edinburgh is very special, the castle is magical,
walking along Princes Street, you have this extraordinary valley, rising
up to the castle from the middle of the city. Also, I feel really happy
here because my mother's family is Scottish and I have wanted to come
to Scotland because of that anyway. This is the first time here for the
whole company.
JK:
How do you feel about the performance schedule?
DS: We have never done shows like this, you know 18 shows in a row, with a
day off after every six days. It's a little harder, but we're getting
used to it, because it's a question of setting your mind to do the job.
DV: It's a remarkable opportunity for us because we don't get runs like this,
ever. This is the first time in our entire professional career that we
ever had a run of 18 shows. Previously we've only had a run of three or
four shows!
Daksha Sheth Dance Company (India)
Sarpagati
A production by Daksha Sheth and Devissaro
Photo and courtesy: Devissaro
JK:
Is it nice that they rotate the times every other week?
DV: Actually
our venue is really good. Before coming we were given nightmare stories
from friends, who told us that we would get only one or two hours to set
up, which is just impossible for our production. But St Stephens has been
great for us. Wolfgang (Hoffman, co-producer with Tim Hawkins of the Café
Direct auroranova festival) staggered the performance openings so
he didn't get eight groups coming on top of each other. He spread the
'get-ins' over a period of ten days, so we had one full day to setup plus
the morning on the opening day for rehearsal. I'm told you normally wouldn't
get that in other Fringe venues. Because he's a dancer himself, Wolfgang
has seen things from the artist's point of view. The performance timings
change each week, so we started with a late afternoon slot, then we had
an early afternoon slot which is probably not such a good time, but in
the last week, we're going to get a 10.30pm slot, which is excellent.
I think it's been really well thought out. We've lucked out with a really
good venue!
DS: We
are very lucky! We feel we're in the right venue for the Fringe.
JK:
What's the relationship like between you and other artists performing
for the Café Direct auroranova festival?
DS: It's so lovely. All the artists, technicians, staff. They're so friendly
and they really help each other and are very considerate towards one and
other. There's a real friendly atmosphere here.
DV: Also what happens here is in the evenings they light a fire on the road
and everyone sits around and chats, it's very informal and it's a great
chance for us to meet the other artists. For us that's really important
because the experience we normally have had when we go to international
festivals is we get one day to set up, two or three days to perform and
then the very next day you're off home! It's all so pressured, you see
nothing of the country and also you don't get a chance to see the extraordinary
programme and what the other performers are doing. So here it's wonderful,
we have time to take in Edinburgh and the other festivals. We've seen
all the programmes in our venues (St Stephens and Theatre Workshop) and
it's free for us too.
DS: That's
good for us, because otherwise you'd be paying about £8 pounds per show
and it can get very expensive. I'm not sure if it's like that in any other
venues here, where performers can see other shows in the venue for free.
DV: So we're getting a lot of advantages. We're showing our work and getting
a chance to see other people's work too. There's an extraordinary range
of work happening in our venue and we get a chance to see it all!
JK:
What shows have you seen outside the Café Direct auroranova festival?
DS: We saw the Derevo's La Divina Commedia, Luminous by Saburo
Teshigawara and KARAS Dance Company, also Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan,
by Teamwork Films at the Traverse and Throat by Company F/Z at
the Pleasance.
DV: As much as we can afford to see, we'll go and see it!
JK:
What were your thoughts on St Stephens when you first saw it?
DS: I was really overwhelmed to be performing in a space that was actually
once a religious space. I was very happy and the acoustics were great,
and the seats are the same seats that people prayed at. There's a lot
of energy in that space.
DV: You can rest your elbows on the book ledge in front while you sit and
watch a performance. It's a very comfortable way to watch a show! It's
a great space.
JK:
How do you find the audiences in general here?
DS: The audiences are great and they show their appreciation. We also get
this kind of response in India, but not to this level. Some shows however
the numbers are low, but this maybe because of the different times we're
on.
DV: What's really nice is that people stay back after the show to meet and
chat to you. Plus St Stephens has the coffee shop downstairs, which is
another place to get good feedback.
DS: One lady today said "I've not seen anything like your show", and someone
yesterday said a similar thing. It's all very much appreciated because
comments like that prove that all the hard work that we've done over the
years has been worth it!
Daksha Sheth Dance Company (India)
Sarpagati
A production by Daksha Sheth and Devissaro
Photo and courtesy: Devissaro
JK:
Could you tell me a bit about the company itself?
DV: Basically
the company is an extension of Daksha's own solo career. Daksha began
her career with the famous Indian kathak dancer Padma Shree Smt.
Kumudini Lakhia, who in turn had begun her career dancing with Ram Gopal
in Europe in the 1950s. That was quite a special connection because Kumudini
Lakhia is the lady who introduced group choreography into kathak dance, and she really set the mark for that, I don't think anyone else
since has done it as well as her. Daksha and her friends were the first
crop of Kumudini students and they were with her, in Daksha's case, for
18 years, and formed the core of the dance troupe with which Kumudini
experimented with.
They performed
all over India and in many other countries too. Daksha came from a business
family with no cultural connections, so Kumudini was her window to the
world and to dance. From there Daksha started to pursue a solo career,
initially as a kathak dancer but later she deviated into other
forms like Chhau (a martial dance from Orissa) and martial arts (like
Kalaripayattu from Kerala). When Daksha and I began to work together,
we set out to explore the possibility of doing creative/innovative work
with these forms. Our experiments met with great public response, which
really encouraged us. Initially we created very small pieces, 8 to 12
minutes, mostly solos for Daksha, basing the work on techniques that she
had, but giving it a different context, music and staging.
After doing
solos and duets for four or five years, Daksha began to explore the choreographic
possibilities of working with slightly larger groups of dancers. Indian
dance traditionally has been for solo performers and choreographically,
in terms of working with groups, it's quite limited and underdeveloped
in India. At the time we were living in Delhi, and Delhi is an expensive
city, rents are high and you can't afford to employ a company. So the
work we did was very ad-hoc; we would be invited to do a show in a few
weeks, and we would quickly throw it together with whatever dancers were
available.
We quickly
saw that if we were really to develop a new and contemporary Indian dance,
it would need to be developed by a group of dancers working full-time
over a period of years. To do that we had to first find a lifestyle that
would enable us to sustain the work.
It took us
a long time to get ourselves sorted out, we were traveling around like
gypsies for a while, but eventually we set up camp in Trivandrum, Kerala,
which is a small town in the deep South of India. We have been there for
the last ten years, and it has become our work place, providing a beautiful
environment where we can work quietly, consistently and without distraction.
We have our own beautiful thatched-roof studio and we can afford to pay
people a modest salary which in the context of Trivandrum is sufficient
to live reasonably well. Our own children have also grown up and into
the company. It is a small group so it's like a family anyhow. We provide
hostels, insurance, salaries and performance fees to the artists who work
with us.
JK:
How frustrating is it that you couldn't bring the whole company to Edinburgh
including the musicians?
DS: We would have loved to have live musicians, as both pieces (Sarpagati and BhuKham) are meant to have live music.
DV: One of our regrets is that we've been dreaming about the Edinburgh festivals
for 20 years, and it's the one place where, more than anything, we want
to show our 'best'. But we're only showing our 'second best' here. We
are presenting a mix of excerpts from two productions to recorded music,
but a full production with live music is our best work. And if we can
get four stars for our second best, we can definitely get five stars for
our best. There were economic restraints that prevented us from bringing
out a larger company, but hopefully in future these things will work themselves
out.
JK:
Can you get funding from home for a high profile trip like this? Are their
grants or funds for travelling overseas?
DV: The Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) gives air tickets, but
not more than once every three years to any company. There's also assistance
that you can get I believe through Air India.
DS: If we took ICCR support now, then we're not eligible to travel via that
scheme for another three years.
JK:
What have you and your company got out of performing at the Festival Fringe?
DS: We feel very energised, because we're amongst so many wonderful and creative
artists and, for the first time, we're seeing a range of work that we
never get to see. We've also never experienced performing continuously
for three weeks, it's a new experience for us, and it's a great experience
too! The company is managing very well through it all and the shows have
gone really well. To keep up the same energy and spirit for a run like
this... well it can be hard sometimes!
DV: Yes, from a professional point of view, now that we have had this experience
of doing a long run of shows, it makes us confident that we can manage
this in the future, it's now not a problem for us.
Daksha Sheth Dance Company (India)
Sarpagati
A production by Daksha Sheth and Devissaro
Photo and courtesy: Devissaro
JK:
What are your plans going to be after you finish here?
DS: Seeing other work here we feel that we are also capable of doing larger-scale
collaborative work with other companies. With a bigger budget, we could
do more things which we've never been able to achieve. All of our work
is done on very constrained budgets, so modest as to be almost laughable
sometimes.
DV: The
entire production-budget for Sarpagati for example. Music, sets,
costumes, everything excluding performance fees and salaries for the artists
is about $500.
DS: Here
we're competing with people with far higher budgets. I could see that Luminous had a huge budget, if we had even a fraction of this,
we could do so much more. There are many things we want to try out but
we just can't afford it.
DV: There are several projects that we've had in our heads for at least ten
years, but they've never been realised for lack of funds. When we started,
we had Daksha as a solo dancer, then it evolved into duets and trios,
now we have about six dancers. But the performances we have in mind require
about 20 dancers, eight live drummers and a 30 voice male choir. It's
big, but if it ever comes off, it will be extraordinary.
DS: We'd like to do collaborative work, so if we get an opportunity, we would
welcome it.
DV: Maybe that's the only way to do a large project.
As far as
touring our existing shows, we'd love to come to the UK again. On the
whole our work has hardly been seen. Once in Germany, now at the Edinburgh
Festival Fringe, plus (in the UK) shows at Cardiff, Manchester, Nottingham,
Aberystwyth and London. For some reason, Finland has seen all of our productions,
outside of that nothing. Not France, not the USA and not even my home
country Australia, has ever seen any of our performances. I feel particularly
frustrated about that, because I've known some of the Indian dance companies
that have gone to Australia and they are terrible!
DS: It's sad because all over India there are good dance companies, but like
us, they never get chosen to go abroad because they live far away and
out of the 'political hub' of India.
DV: Like everywhere you have to cultivate your connections, and you don't
just do that living in Trivandrum. Also the paradox or dilemma is that
on the few occasions where we have performed in other countries, while
the audience response has always been overwhelmingly positive, it has
seldom translated into much in the way of follow-up performances. After
these 18 shows in Edinburgh, with fantastic press and audience response,
it's going to be quite depressing if we get back to India and find out
that nothing further comes up for three or four years!
DS: There are people who have been asking about our performances, but how
much of that will materialise. Well we don't really know.
DV: Who knows, one can only hope.
The other
thing is learning how to work within the professional environment here,
which is so different to the one in India. There really isn't an environment
for contemporary dance in India, it's something which is slowly evolving.
Even how to go about arranging tours. It's something we're slightly at
a loss with. I think to be successful here you need a professional promoter
or agent to work on your behalf, because it's very difficult in India
to follow up any opportunities.
JK: The Café Direct auroranova festival itself is
quite amazing too. It feels like a real community festival.
DV: Well that's the other thing, I mean when I see the shows here, I can't
help wondering why it is that India has no international arts festival.
It is a shame because India is one of the world's richest countries with
regards to culture and philosophy, it represents one sixth of the world's
population, and there is talk of cultural tourism as a major thrust for
India, yet still it has no major international arts festival. So many
countries, much smaller than India, have significant international festivals.
JK:
Do you know why that is?
DV: Firstly, there's a tremendous lack of infrastructure. It's hard to hold
a festival in India except in Delhi, Bombay maybe Calcutta, but even in
those cities, compared to the West and even compared to other Asian countries,
facilities are extremely limited and basic. The second problem is an economic
one; the Rupee is not an international currency, so if you're going to
have foreign artists coming to India, how do you pay them? You'd have
to get permission and all sorts of things, it's not that simple. Also,
the business-sector in India has to date only thought in terms of sport
for sponsorship, even though India is much more famous internationally
for the wealth of its culture than for sport!
They are
slow to realise that culture is a great vehicle on which to internationally
hoist the corporate flag, and is also a good proposition for sponsorship.
Maybe that will change but for the moment all you have is a few government
organisations which are on the whole a bit sleepy and not really equipped
with a budget to do something like this. The pieces just haven't come
together. But it will, it has to come together, India can't keep going
on without a big international festival!
DS: Actually there are people who are interested in setting up an international
arts festival in India.
DV: Sanjoy Roy (Director Teamwork Films) is a good example. He'd be a great
director for an international arts festival in India.
Interview
by John Kundu, Web and Communications Manager, Visiting Arts
Edinburgh, 15 August 2002.
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