1. Who are you and what do you do at Big Weekend?
We are Sanskruti Cambridge, an award-winning dance company and school specialising in south-Asian dance and music. I am the founder and artistic director, and I established Sanskruti in 2007. We are the pioneers for introducing Bharatanataym to the Cambridge Big Weekend Festival in 2007. At that time, people were not familiar with this dance style and found it fascinating to watch it being performed live at the Big Weekend at the World Dance marquees. Since then, the performances by our students and artists have become a regular scene every year at the Big Weekend, especially the popular Asian Mela. Bharatanatyam is no longer an unknown art form and we take immense pride in propagating not only Bharatanatyam, but also Odissi, Bollywood dance and Carnatic music. We have a core set of teachers who are committed to training students in the art forms. As the artistic director and teacher, my vision is to bring south Asian art forms to a diverse, multicultural audience and the Big Weekend is an ideal platform for this purpose. Every year, we present classical dance forms on the Main Stage as well as in the Mela marquee. Our performers include students; children and adults, upcoming local artists and professional artists from UK and abroad. We also do arts and crafts activities occasionally to engage with our young audience.
2. What is your occupation outside of Big Weekend?
I was a research scientist at the University of Cambridge when I first started Sanskruti in 2007. At that time, I was teaching only once a week on Friday evenings so it was possible to have a full time career in science and teach dance to a lovely bunch of students. With time, my classes started to expand and after my first child was born, I decided to leave research based science and move into scientific writing. This was a perfect way to balance family, science and dance in my life until late 2018 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. While undergoing my treatment, which ranged from chemo sessions to radiotherapy and two surgeries in 2019, I could not cope with the deadlines as a scientific writer. Somehow, week after week I looked forward to being with my dance students (on days that I was well enough, that is!). Dance kept me going and my students have done some brilliant work during this time when I was undergoing treatment. In January 2020, I completed all my treatment and I’m still unsure if I will get back to scientific writing as Sanskruti is taking a lot of my time these days.
Photo Credit: Krishna dancing in 2016 and still in 2019 throughout her amazing recovery.
3. How has that changed due to Covid-19?
Honestly, nothing much has changed for me. I am still teaching almost every day of the week online by Zoom and we have even launched our digital platform NavSanskruti. The aim is to provide a platform for our students and teachers to continue performing their art forms, which can be shared digitally. So I’m still busy teaching, coming up with new ways to remain connected with our audience and well wishers, create new movement and choreography. However, there are 2 things that have changed- I don’t spend time driving to my dance studio and I use that extra time to dance myself :) I’m currently learning a new Bharatanatyam repertoire from my Guru in India, Smt. Padma Murali. I find it very peaceful when I’m learning from her.
4. How has your life changed due to the current situation? For good and for bad?
Lockdown for me came at a time when I was just about to start working on my company’s next R&D work for a new family dance piece. My company was going to tour our production Apple ’n’ Spice in Autumn 2020. This of course is now postponed to next year. In addition, some of the other dance festivals in which I was invited to perform have been cancelled. But with my experience of cancer, I’ve learnt to live one day at a time so I’m actually not very disappointed with the delays in setting up various projects. It will happen at some point.
The one thing that I miss the most is the classroom atmosphere with my students. I set-up the virtual online classes in the first week of lockdown, but I do miss seeing them in person and listening to their non-stop jabber. Also, with lockdown all our students’ performances have been cancelled and we’re not sure if there will be any performances happening this year at all. I’m hopeful that NavSanskruti will help in some way to keep our students motivated to perform.
Photo Credit: Simon Richardson. Sanskruti in the Mela Performance Marquee during the Cambridge Mela.
5. What do you look forward to the most after this?
Return to the studio, meet my friends, and to to Scotsdales!
6. What is your favourite moment or memory from Big Weekend?
That Friday evening when the Event Manager called me in late June 2014 to say that my request to bring Bharatanatyam to the Main Stage was accepted. My students and I were the first to present Bharatanatyam as a classical Indian dance form on the Main Stage. That was our moment… Sanskruti’s moment! From 2014, Bharatanatyam is always on the Main Stage, every Big Weekend, along with Odissi and Kathak.
7. How much are you looking forward to Big Weekend 2021?
I think as soon I get a chance to go to Scotsdales, the next thing I would want is the Big Weekend! Fingers crossed that July 2021 comes in quickly.
Click below to find out more about Sanskruti
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