Garbh

A South Asian outdoor dance piece in an authentic Indian Village experience, collectively celebrating the divine Feminine energy.

Garbh is a South Asian outdoor dance work bringing an authentic Indian Village experience to Festival audiences. An ensemble of 6 dancers embodying Gujarati folk dance will lead this vibrant celebration, located around a bespoke earth/sandset. Using movement from the Gujarati Folk dance form, Garba, traditionally performed by the community, for the community and is accessible to everyone regardless of gender, faith, caste or sexuality, Garbh transports audiences to the deserts of Kutch – much like Garba would have been done historically, through innovations of set, costume and movement in the outdoors.

Shyam Dattani is a London-based mover and maker whose practice is grounded by strong technique, training and choreographic thinking in Kathak, while training professionally with Urja Desai Thakore, Pagrav Dance Co. His work is grounded by collectivity, care and the community, reflecting the cultural significance of being a diasporically-trained dance artist and is informed by his queer experience. He won the South Asian Dance category of BBC Young Dancer 2017 & was a grand finalist at Sadler’s Wells, and has performed extensively with leading choreographers and companies, such as Amina Khayyam Dance Co, Beeja and Srishti as well as recently touring in Canada. He has received seed commissioning from Akademi to create original work, and will be sharing a new work at Resolution this summer.