Shobana Jeyasingh (1957-). Indian-born British dancer, choreographer and director

Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh was born in Chennai, India, in 1957, and studied Bharata Natyam, a form of classical Indian dance. Jeyasingh moved to Britain in 1981 to complete her masters’ degree in Shakespearean Studies. Upon completion, Jeyasingh returned to dance and embarked on a career as a classical Indian dancer, touring the country. In 1988, Jeyasingh concluded her active dancing life and launched a quartet of female dancers under the name Configurations, choreographing for them using a commissioned score by Michael Nyman. The company’s work grew steadily over the 1990s, reaching the point in 2000 when Jeyasingh integrated a male dancer into her all-female work.

Jeyasingh took two years away to recover from a rare auto-immune disease, but has since produced pieces for companies including Ballet Black, Random Dance and English National Ballet, as well as continuing to lead Shobana Jeyasingh Dance. In 2010, the company toured to India for the first time, and in 2018 became an Associate Company of the Southbank Centre. Critics have commented on the transformation of Jeyasingh’s choreography over her creative output, moving from a refocusing of a classical Indian form with contemporary music, to a postmodern dance style that borrows from a wide range of physical genres. Jeyasingh’s work examines questions of travel and identity, aiming to challenge expectations and, in the company’s words, ‘uncover strange beauty’.