We are a south-Asian performing arts company based in Cambridge. Our mission is to inspire, educate and engage people, especially families and children, in South-Asian artforms, to propagate South-Asian culture and heritage. With dance at the forefront, we do this through workshops and performances in a range of venues, and for different occasions. Our motto is "anyone can see our works anywhere" so that we can make south-Asian arts accessible to families and children from diverse ethnicities. Our dance theatre blends stories and artforms from the East and West to create new stories that are relevant to the modern British society. Our works offer an immersive experience to our young audiences enabling them to become a part of the story, build their confidence to participate, and cultivate enthusiasm for future live performances. As stated by an audience member: “Getting the kids to participate in the dancing was wonderful”. We know our south-Asian dance work has an impact on young audiences, allowing them to be creative and, to explore new rhythms and dance movements. This helps us build audiences/participants from an early age and develop their creative potential.
We have three main strands to our work: School of Dance, The Dance Company, and our Workshops and Educational work. Our dance school trains students of all age groups in 2 Indian dance styles- the classical Bharatanatyam dance style and Bollywood dance style. We are one of the eight successful dance schools across the UK that were awarded One Dance UK’s teaching mentoring 2017-2018. Our student Linnea Husmann won the coveted Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance (ISTD)’s Junior Bursary Award in 2019, with our artistic director, Krishna Zivraj-Nair winning the bursary in recognition of her teaching potential.
Our dance company, Sanskruti Dance, creates professional choreography using South-Asian dance and music vocabulary. The work connects with children and families of different ethnic backgrounds and contains strong participatory elements to engage and excite our audiences. The pieces are very adaptable to different types of venues from traditional theatres to community centres, libraries, hospitals, outdoor festivals, and museums. We cherish this format and versatility, which allows us to connect with our target audience, and plan to continue creating shows of this kind in the short and medium terms. The dance company is supported by Arts Council England and with this support we have created two touring dance theatre works called Apple 'N' Spice and Magical Honey.
Our education and outreach programme includes working with schools, introducing South Asian culture through dance, movement and storytelling at various schools in the region. We offer workshops themed around Indian festivals such as Diwali, Holi and Navratri for schools offering them workshops in either Bharatanatyam or Bollywood dance styles. We also offer educational workshops to dance students in secondary schools introducing them to south Asian dance technique and history. This way we raise awareness of the rich South Asian culture among the youth, both at primary and secondary level. We also offer workshops at cultural fetes, village festivals and engage with local communities.
