Taking traditional Indian dance to new heights with Aravinth Kumarasamy

Aravinth at the entrance of Apsaras Arts, located at Goodman Arts Centre.

Aravinth has spent the last decade nurturing young performers and championing the elegant art form in Singapore and the rest of the world. On top of composing for and choreographing performances, he also constantly looks for ways to collaborate with the world’s leading dance and music exponents.

Ever since its inception, the company has performed with artistes from around the region. A particularly memorable collaboration was when the company worked with the Cambodian Royal Dance Company and gamelan performers—totaling nearly 150 artistes and crew —to perform at the Esplanade in 2013.

Today, traditional Indian dance continues to make waves in society. In the past few years, Aravinth has seen a steady increase in people wanting to pursue it as a part-time occupation or a career. “There are many people from the younger generation who are crazy about Indian classical dance,” he remarks enthusiastically. “There is no shortage of young people on the scene. We have, in the last 20 years, been able to provide a platform for many young Singaporeans to pursue this as a career. This wasn’t possible up until 10 or 15 years ago.”

Participants from a Bharatanatyam Masterclass that Apsaras Arts held in 2015.

In recognition of all the hard work Apsaras Arts has put into developing the traditional Indian dance community and industry, the National Heritage Board conferred the company with the “Stewards of Intangible Cultural Heritage Award” in 2020.

Apasaras Art Dance company performing in 2017.

Most recently, Apsaras Arts embarked on a tour to France in November 2021, where the company staged performances across 8 French cities —namely Strasbourg, Nancy, Lunéville, Avingnon, Cannes, Nice, and Paris —and screened its 2 digital films, “SITA” and “AMARA.”

Bringing live dance to screens worldwide

Mohanapriyan Thavarajah and Shivangi Dake Robert performing the Ode to Surtya Bharatanatyam and Kathak duet in 2016.

Aravinth attributes part of the traditional Indian dance community's growth to how readily the company embraces technology. “Whether it’s using existing infrastructure at venues like the Esplanade or working with sound design during our productions, we have been able to bring modern sensibilities into a more traditional form,” he shares. “We are also conscious of being online and having a social media presence, which a lot of young people are familiar with nowadays.”

Valuing innovation and collaboration meant that Apsaras Arts was able to swiftly pivot to online programming right when the necessary circuit breaker and social distancing measures were rolled out. Apsaras Arts began offering Zoom classes and produced digital performances. The company’s digitisation transformation culminated in the introduction of its digital performance space AVAI. With the ability to host online webinars as well as a variety of free and ticketed performances, dance enthusiasts from Singapore and abroad were able to get a fill of the lively art form from the comfort of their homes. AVAI also functions as an archive for older performances.

Of course, this wasn’t without hard work from Aravinth and his team. Going digital made him and his team even busier, with more work having to be done during performancesand post-production. There was also the issue of having to rethink choreography and using cameras efficiently to showcase different perspectives of the performance.

Another major challenge was the inability to source costumes from India anymore. Ever the problem solver, Aravinth reached out to local tailors —some of whom had no experience with dance costumes —and taught them how to stitch traditional costumes from scratch. “You can’t email a dance costume to us, so these were some things that had to be made in Singapore,” Aravinth quips.

Aravinth with traditional Indian dance costumes.

Details of the traditional Indian dance costumes.

However, the team’s hard work paid off as the platform was well-received. Particularly, a high point of the digitisation process, was when Apsaras Arts was selected to inaugurate the platform Sistic Live and drew 6,000 viewers globally. “We were suddenly accessible to the whole world and our global following increased massively. We had people from Singapore and other parts of the world join us for our production of “Anjaneyam: Hanuman’s Ramayana.”

Support to overcome challenges

Crucial to Apsaras Arts’ success during this time were the Job Support Scheme (JSS), Digital Presentation Grant for the Arts (DPG), and the Sustain the Arts (stART) Fund. “We are a predominantly Singaporean-run company, so we benefited from the JSS. We didn’t have to lose any artists, producers, performers or admin staff, thanks to it. We were very privileged to do this,” Aravinth shared.

“With the DPG, we created two films, “SITA” and “AMARA,” using CGI and green screens. We pushed ourselves very hard and the two films were very well received,”Aravinth tells us. The films aren’t available on YouTube but have been screened in Paris and Strasbourg, France. The company is looking forward to screening them in India and other parts of the world.

The National Arts Council’s (NAC) stART Fund also ensured that the company could move forward with IPAC, the annual Indian Performing Arts Convention. Instead of being shut down due to the pandemic, the convention adopted a hybrid model to reach its participants. IPAC is dedicated to nurturing the traditional Indian dancers with learning programmes and celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2021. Aravinth was also pleased to share that the company managed to bring IPAC to France on its most recent tour, and was proud to fly the Singapore flag there despite the pandemic.

Dreams for the future

2022 is shaping up to be a fruitful and ambitious year for Apsaras Arts. “Indian dance from Apsaras Arts is unique because of our collaborations and integration of Southeast Asian cultures. We hope to do more outreach and strengthen our global presence,” Aravinth elucidates. Like many other performing arts troupes, the company is eager to travel and perform again.

Aravinth at Goodman Arts Centre.

With a strong belief in what he does, Aravinth is eager for Apsaras Arts to make a mark on the world stage —be it on stage or online. “If travelling isn’t possible, then we hope that our digital works will be able to. The appetite for traditional Indian dance has grown globally and we want to represent Singapore around the world.”