Global force: Aakash Odedra

February 3 2015

Rising Kathak star now has prestigious US award to add other accolades…

by Suman Bhuchar

A YEAR can be a long time for any creative artist.

Just over 12 months ago, www.asianculturevulture.com interviewed Aakash Odedra as he was on his way to the US to perform a dance piece dedicated to soul legend, James Brown.

The show was the brain child of American director and choreographer, Otis Sallid, who presented an evening dedicated to “The Godfather of Soul” entitled, “Get on the Good Foot” where Odedra performed a piece called “Ecstasy”.

“I did a lot of research and he really was about connecting to people; there was something very spiritual about him and connected to the audience because he stood for the Civil Rights movement.

“If you were going to describe James Brown what would be the one word to describe him, and this one word was ecstasy,” he explained to www.asianculturevulture.com.

The Leicester based and Birmingham born Kathak trained artist has had a lot to celebrate as “Ecstasy”, which opened at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, New York went on to win a ‘Bessie’ at the 30th Annual New York Dance and Performance awards. The ‘Bessie’ is given to independent dancers, and named after legendary dance teacher, Bessie Schoenberg.

This highly prestigious award has only had three South Asian recipients’ to date: Shantala Shivalingappa (in 2012/3 for her performance of “Shiva Ganga”) and alongside Odedra, his mentor, Akram Khan also received it for his production of “Desh”.

“It’s nice to see South Asian dance spreading its wings, so it doesn’t geographically belong to one area, and that’s amazing. We’ve all worked very hard to give this art form an identity which is globally recognised.”

Odedra has also been a familiar face on Sky TV over the last year, as he has been a recipient of the prestigious Sky Academy Arts scholarship worth £30,000 – and which enables access to mentors in an arts field. It’s a very competitive field and he was one of five people selected from the 800 applicants.

Odedra has been mentored by Alistair Spalding, chief executive and artistic director at Sadler’s Wells and the sky support has been used to develop his new pieces: “Inked” and “Murmur” that are touring in 2015.

We caught up with the artist in his dressing room after these performances at the Linbury Studio of the Royal Opera House just recently.

“Inked” is a slightly scary and demanding piece based on the tattoos that Odedra used to see on his grandmother’s body and requires a lot of preparation. His dressing room is strewn with different types of ink that he uses to draw tattoos on his body as well as on the dance floor.

“The piece was inspired by my grandmother,” he explained. “Tattoos are a symbol of identity and he wanted to remember his paternal granny through his work.

“She raised me from when I was six months old. She passed away and I never had time to get over that.

“Physically, mentally, spiritually it’s a very demanding piece and maybe it was a hard form of therapy. The last image I had of her is me holding her hand and my hand is clear and her hand is inked.”

And in the show, he inks himself on different parts of his body and is constantly on stage – at one point standing, performing a headstand for an inordinate length of time, and I worry about the impact that might have on his frail looking torso. (He reminds me of Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly”, when he has inked some eyes into his shoulder blades and the way he then uses them to express himself).

The second piece, “Murmur”, is also drawn from personal experiences and explores the misconceptions around dyslexia.

Here, he tries to write his name and identity but realises that he can illustrate it better through his body. It’s a funny, moving and beautiful piece with great music and visual projections.

You can get a glimpse of this on the excerpt he did for “Ted Talks” which has had over half a million views but the real thing is something exceptional.

He is also an associate artist at Curve, a regional arts venue in Leicester.

Odedra has had such a busy time, often performing around the world and told www.asianculturevulture.com that he enjoys relaxing by watching wild life documentaries presented by David Attenborough.

He is currently touring with the two shows and do try to catch them wherever you can – more details are on his website but the next time in the UK will be at the Contact Theatre, Manchester on February 25.

Picture: Aakash Odedra by Sean Goldthorpe

From the archive on Aakash Odedra (2014) http://asianculturevulture.com/portfolios/on-the-rise-with-aakash-odedra-and-funky-kathak/

http://www.aakashodedra.co.uk/calendar/
February 13 – Nanterre France
February 19-21 Perth Festival, Australia.

Sky Academy Arts Scholarships in association with IdeasTap, closing date is February 26 2015 – open to artists aged 18-30. See here please

‘Ted Talks’ dance find here