Blog by Japheth Monzon, BSWN’s Project Officer
Earlier last week, I had the absolute pleasure to sit down and have a conversation with Seeta Patel, an award-winning choreographer and dancer known for contemporary dance styles and the classical dance style of Bharatanatyam. Seeta was kind enough to make time in her busy schedule to tell me her story: how she went from Saturday dance practices, to taking a break from dance for medical school, to her eventual nomination for the prestigious Olivier award for Best Dance Performance – making her the first Woman of Colour to be nominated for such an award.
Seeta was born in London, moving to Bristol at the age of 5. It is within the city that she started discovering her passion for the art form of dance. But not just any kind of dance, a dance that is heavily embedded within her community. Bharatanatyam is an increasingly popular Indian classical dance form across the globe, and a solo dance form that Seeta has dedicated her time to curate and perform. It was from attending her local temple’s saturday school that she began learning the art of Bharatanatyam, and from there the rest is history.
But her journey from a South Asian Bristolian girl dancing in Saturday school to award-winning and Olivier-nominated was not without its twists and turns. Her work in dance took a backseat when she went to Nottingham University to pursue a degree in Medicine, but her passion never left. She joined a dance company during her time at University, taking a sabbatical for a year to tour with the company. But this experience was profoundly enriching for her, taking another sabbatical to continue dancing. From there, she knew she found where she belonged – in the world of dance.
To Seeta, dance is more than just coordinated movement to the sounds of music. To Seeta, it's a way of transporting herself and her audience to a different world, one that fosters an emotional and thoughtful connection. The power of dance lies in the fact that it can be interpreted differently through the eyes of the performer and the observer – after all, the South Asian community is not a monolith but made up of various ethnicities, religious, and linguistic groups. Indeed, Bharatanatyam is a South Indian dance form, distinct from Seeta’s own ethnic heritage of North India. At first glance it may seem as though the dance form Seeta practises is from her own specific background, but in reality Gujarati culture is very different to the South Indian origins of Bharatanatyam. Of course there is shared mythology, Hindu deities, and certain sensibilities, but there are also vast cultural differences meaning Seeta also had to learn beyond her own Indian upbringing. Being able to perform it throughout the United Kingdom, she is also able to infuse her own Western sensibilities into her artistry. This melting pot that Seeta was able to create and share allows her dances to connect with so many people from all walks of life.
But she also understands that dance is also viewed as an inaccessible and distant art form, reserved only for those who dedicate their time and energy to it, or equally accessible to those with the means to watch a performance. On top of that, Bharatanatyam is not a mainstream dance form in the United Kingdom. But that only serves to emphasise why her work is important. As a member of a racialised diaspora, it’s easy to feel out of place. In sharing her art, she provides a beautiful window into one of the cultures of her motherland, providing people a viewpoint they’d otherwise never have encountered.
Seeta doesn’t limit herself to Bharatanatyam, engaging in many other forms of art in recognition of the diversity of diasporic communities. But an overarching theme behind all her artistry is its political dimension.
“Even if the content isn’t political, the platform I place it in is. The context, therefore, is political. And stories/context can show something visceral.”
Sharing non-mainstream dance forms, like Bharatanatyam, with Western audiences does have its challenges. Not many people in the United Kingdom practice Bharatanatyam as a professional full-time career, and scaling up the work equally is difficult. To make things work, Seeta has had to dedicate considerable amounts of time to the art form. Despite these challenges, Seeta came out on top, with her reimagination of Igor Stravinsky’s classical ballet composition ‘The Rite of Spring’ – a staple in ballet and contemporary dance world.
“The music is so epic that it lends itself to many bodies and the power of community.”
Scouring the globe for dancers to take part, she secured a 12-person ensemble composed of dancers from eight different countries and of varying ages. With the incredible support of Arts Council England, Seeta was able to turn her vision into a reality. Since debuting this piece, Seeta has since been nominated for the prestigious 2024 Laurence Olivier award for excellence in professional theatre, making her the very first woman of colour to have been nominated for Best New Dance Production at the Oliviers.
Whilst her landmark nomination for an Olivier is certainly a massive feather in her cap, Seeta tells us that her proudest achievements stem from the impact her artistry has on audiences. She takes joy when audience members write to her after her shows, sharing their praise and thanks. She always shares these moments of joy with the dancers, who equally receive such warmth with glee. Another moment she shared was when an older white man in his seventies, who had never seen such a dance before, was utterly moved by one of her performances. Alongside this, she is especially proud of seeing Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London filled with young brown people, interested in practising the art of dance. To Seeta, all these things cross the scale of achievement, whether they are tiny moments or larger celebrations.
At the root of Seeta Patel’s passionate work is her dedication to her community and to the next generation of young artists of colour and diasporic artists. Certainly, her dance company provides support to young Bharatanatyam dancers. On top of this, she wants to shift the conversation. We talk about resilience, and indeed Seeta showed resilience in her own journey. Being a racialised woman in the complicated industry of dance, she was put on a back-footing based on these characteristics, and indeed this is something that is shared by many other racialised dancers out there. But she strongly believes that we need to go beyond conversations about resilience, moving from surviving to thriving. Resilience is a starting point, but you also need to be proactive and pick yourself up when you’re done. Thriving is about perspective growing and keeping perspective when things are difficult. It’s very lonely in the early days of one’s dance career, with Seeta sharing that she had done a lot of things by herself, drawing from her self-motivation to keep going. Her parting words to young dancers are: ‘Wherever and whenever you find motivation and kindred spirits, hold onto them.’