Material Men redux, a new full-length version of 2015’s Material Men, has its world première at Lakeside, Nottingham on 7 February 2017 before touring to Ipswich, Eastleigh, Birmingham, Glasgow and giving its London premiere at The Place on 28 and 29 April 2017.
Shobana Jeyasingh weaves the shared history and personal stories of dancers Sooraj Subramaniam and Shailesh Bahoran into powerful dance and potent imagery.
The styles of these two performers of the Indian diaspora could not be more different—classical Indian dance and hip hop—but the men share a history rooted in colonial migration and plantation labour.
Jeyasingh said, “indentured labour resulted in the migration of over three million Indians to provide cheap labour (known derogatively as coolies) for the European powers in plantations across the globe. It was abolished in 1917.”
Material Men redux is an exploration of the violence of loss and the creation of new ways of belonging from her 2015 work with new choreography and a film collage of archive footage and images by Simon Daw. The commissioned score by Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin is played live on stage by The Smith Quartet with additional sound design by Leafcutter John.
An excerpt of Shobana Jeyasingh’s Bayadere—the Ninth Life will be presented as part of Sampled at Sadler’s Wells on 3 and 4 February and at The Lowry, Salford on 24 and 25 February. Her short solo Études for company dancer Noora Kela as part of The Courtauld Gallery’s Rodin & Dance curator’s talk was first performed on 2 November with two further performances on 7 December and 4 January.
Jeyasingh was also announced last month as cross-category judge for the BBC Young Dancer 2017.