We often see dancing in Bollywood movies, or bust a move ourselves at a brown wedding. But let’s get deeper. Not only is dance incredibly complex and diverse, but it has the transformative ability to tell stories, entertain, heal, and serve as a form of unapologetic self-expression.
As choreographer Raghav Handa hosts a five-day workshop this week, he hopes participants dig deep and embrace the art of dance and movement to create something utterly special.
“My hope is that they would come in and just break open some of the things they're struggling with,” Handa tells Draw Your Box.
“If they're making a work, and there's a particular aspect of the work that they want to sort of talk about and find a way through it,” he explains, or “find a different performative mode to say the thing that they're saying… this is the space to do that”.
Trained in contemporary dance and drawing on the principles of Kathak, Handa is hosting this Sydney workshop as part of IDEA Festival, a new creative initiative by FORM Dance Projects to support recent graduates and mid-career artists within the Sydney dance sector.
Part of the multi-day workshop will involve Handa teaching his “own repertoire from a body of work”, as well as showing participants how to “utilise different performative modes” to tell a story, and taking them “through a series of vocal and physical warm ups”.
“It is a bit of a knowledge sharing opportunity,” says Handa, whose acclaimed works have been performed locally and internationally in the last decade.
Born in Amritsar, Punjab, Handa’s love for dancing began at a very early age. When his sister didn’t want to use a 10-class pass for Kathak purchased by their mother, Handa made great use of it and found his feet (excuse the pun) for what would become an incredibly rewarding future career.
Handa and his family moved to the UK before relocating to Australia in time for him to start high school. It was at this point in adolescence when he faced challenges in pursuing the art.
“The formal training was that, and I did that for years,” says Handa, “and then when you grow up a little bit and become a teenager… my parents, not so much my mum but my dad said, ‘Well boys don't really put bells on their feet’".
Handa says it was common to hear within his Indian community that “boys don't dance for profession and you’ve got to become an accountant, doctor or lawyer”.
He still took some drama classes during high school, and after Year 12, he trained himself in contemporary dance. After landing a role in West Side Story, you can say the rest is history and he never looked back.
“When I speak about Kathak, I always caveat that by saying that I am not a classical dancer, I'm a contemporary dancer,” he explains of the basis behind his work. It’s the theatrical elements of Kathak’s storytelling that Handa mostly embraces when he choreographs his routines.
“When you come in [and watch my works], there is a lot of dance, but then there's a lot of theatrics in it. So that's how I use Kathak in my work,” he reflects. “I use the complex mathematics to work with a beautiful tabla player, Maharshi Raval and sound designer James Brown. I work with them to create dynamic sound structures that dancers can then work with, or I can work with. So that's how I use Kathak.”
Storytelling and emotion is certainly key this week in Handa’s workshop, where he invites the other dancers to let go of inhibitions.
“It really is about learning the skills and sharpening your skill set, and exposing yourself in an environment where you can be a little bit vulnerable,” he says. “You’re not holding back.
“I always say, ‘Leave the shame at the door’. Because unless you break yourself open for everybody to have an opportunity to experience you, you're not going to, in turn, experience them – and that's what the workshops are about.”