The Banyan Tree Project

The Banyan Tree project will focus on the recent history of the development of South Asian dance in the UK and its wider cultural relevance over the last two decades. Pulse magazine, in its fifty-six back issues, contains invaluable material in the form of articles, interviews, performance reviews and a treasure-trove of photographs of the leading exponents of the dance forms. This heritage will be made accessible online to members of the public, including community groups, dance students and scholars. New, filmed interviews with prominent dancers who will share their stories will add to the existing material. Other presentations of this material, and responses to it, will include community workshops and podcasts. 

The Banyan Tree will have a nationwide reach and engage new people with this fascinating history.

In anticipation of the time when we can all be out in the physical world again, we are preparing a travelling exhibition of photographs and film as part of this project, entitled ‘Stirring Stillness’. 

The exhibition will show pictures taken by dance photographers who have captured moments in the evolution of South Asian dance in the UK. These images reveal the stillness at the centre of these forms, as well as their dynamism, sculptural qualities, and details of dress, gesture and expression. The photographs exhibited will highlight the contribution of local artists (in Luton, Leicester and London) to the development of South Asian dance in the UK.  

The exhibition will be opened with performances by local dancers and will be accompanied by Akram Khan’s era-defining film, Loose in Flight, which led to a generation of South Asian dancers thinking about classical dance in a new way. 

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS 

Simon Richardson, with additional contributions from Vipul Sangoi and Chris Nash.

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