Do you find that there is an underlying queerness within certain classical Indian forms? For example, Kathakali and Bharatanatyam dancers will often portray roles of different genders? Or perhaps that’s a more Western view of those art forms.

I think in those contexts they’re seen as performance, as characters. With the work I do it isn’t about changing those forms to fit into something else, but bringing my own Queer body, experience, and queerness into that space. Looking into the possibilities that lie within it, what bringing that means. I think that is also an oversight in the contemporary dance world of not really understanding that concept in relation to classical work.

When you see a performer in Kathakali or Bharatanatyam, the artist is usually very removed from the reality they are portraying, very often they perform in a very stereotypical way. It’s theatrical, it recounts mythology in a fantastical way. So this is where the difference lies. 

Coming back to “Astitva,” what drew you to wanting to lean into that more contemporary side?

It was purposeful, but not because I believe it's not possible to queer classical forms. All of my previous works have queered a classical Indian form or have looked at it through a Queer angle. “Waltzing the Blue Gods,” which won the Eastern Eye Award, did exactly that. Queering the narrative, imagining what it might feel like in relation to my Queer body, how I saw a queerness within the Hindu mythology and the spirituality within that faith. 

This work is intentionally contemporary because I’m curious about how we now define what contemporary dance is. I’ll go and see contemporary dance and most of the time it’ll be conceptual and so far-removed from what the meaning is. It’s then that I feel there’s a lack of that human quality, it's now super athletic, the body is used as a machine. I wanted to bring that frame of universal stories into “Astitva.” Yes it has dance, yes the dancers are athletic, but that doesn’t detract from the fundamental storytelling of the work. 

Within “Astitva” is there a distinct narrative through-line?

The work is certainly not the stereotypical conceptual work that we see on stages today. The work takes an episodic structure, which reflects that of what we refer to as the “gay-man-life-timeline.” Gay men’s lives aren’t the typical thing of growing up, getting married, having children, having grandchildren, you know? The timeline will change depending on when you come out, when you have your first relationship. Gay marriage is still a recent thing, adoption is becoming more available to gay couples. The world has changed from that norm of the traditional heterosexual lifestyle. I think that Gay men have become more ingrained into society than ever before. There's still a long way to go, but it's way better than when I was young, gay, and coming out twenty years ago.

The work has also been choreographed and conceived to reflect a distinct period of time and of my life. It’s born out of the experiences of Section 28 in the UK, it’s born out of Section 377 in India, the AIDS epidemic, the rise of global gay culture and the internet. I remember growing up in Wolverhampton, no internet just a TV, without ever seeing gay men’s lives represented in media, never mind from a Brown or South Asian perspective. Attitude Magazine was on the top shelf of the WH Smith whereas now it's on a lower shelf (he chuckles). I was watching Queer as Folk in secret. I think a lot has changed since then too. So this is all reflected in the work as well.

We don't dictate what the messaging is too much in the work, we don't have clearly defined characters that go from A to B, we’re more interested in creating dialogue with the audience of what they experienced. The work is multi-layered, it’s delivered in a way where anyone with any or no knowledge of dance has an inroad somewhere.