Shobana Jeyasingh is accomplished in Bharatanatyam, an Indian classical dance, in which she had honed her skills while living in India under Guru Vazhuvoor Samraj Pillai, and later in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. As a dance-maker and internationally recognised choreographer, she combines movements across genres for stage, screen, and unconventional performance sites. Known for intellectual rigour, her choreographies such as Faultline (a response to the London tube bombings), TooMortal (for historic churches), Material Men redux (of 19th century indentured labour) place the body centre stage in the dialogue of ideas. Notable commissions include work for Rambert, Ballet Black, Company Wayne McGregor, the Venice Biennale, Beijing Modern Dance Academy, Contemporary City Dance Company of Hong Kong and Opéra National du Rhin in France amongst others. Jeyasingh’s works have toured worldwide including Europe, the USA, India, and is now part of the national curriculum in the UK. As well as being a judge for BBC Young Dancer in both 2017 and 2019, she has also received honorary doctorates from the universities of Surrey, Leicester, and Chichester.
