GET TO KNOW | Nandita Shankardass

How did you find your way into dance, theatre and storytelling?

I started learning dance at the age of 4. My first dance class was a Ballet class, where I felt a deep sense of connection to myself in simply being in a space filled with music and the possibility to move around and express. Movement felt like my voice.  Before that, I’ve come to feel that the way my father listens and connects to music and my mum’s love for a good story meet each other in me and have guided me on my path. 

I responded instinctively to music first, creating movement to what I heard since I was a child. 

Born to immigrant parents from India and growing up in a south asian household, the soundtrack that filled our home travelled across a spectrum of Indian and Western classical, folk and popular music. Listening to music was instilled by my Dad, following his own childhood experience of growing up in the family’s music store in Nairobi, where he spent most of his free time, surrounded by music and instruments! We watched the Bollywood classics, full of songs and immersed ourselves in live Indian devotional music by local singers and musicians who re- energised our home in gatherings my mum organised as part of her spiritual and religious practice.

… Music invites me to move, an idea emerges and the path follows. Over the years, through my dance training, career, and personal life experiences, the way in to creating new work shifts and evolves along with me. Through experimentation, questioning and reflection, my choreographic practice has also found a concept or story arriving as the initial spark, then I explore the movement to embody it and music follows to further inspire. I can feel guided by issues and themes which compel and empower me to create as much as a piece of music can evoke ideas and stories. The journey of this process is often in flux and is interchangeable, this is the beauty I love about surrendering to the act of creativity whichever way it begins. For Roots to Rise, I am working with trusted collaborator, composer and producer Shammi Pithia who has created a sound world for the show and moments of original score, along with music from a range of South Asian artists I admire. 

I am drawn to all kinds of theatre with a range of mediums and I enjoy writing. Moving on from the traditional approaches to creating dance which I experienced when I was younger, I like to experiment with a variety of pathways and I am exploring a storytelling approach in Roots to Rise. It is my first experience working with a Dramaturg, Poonam Brah to distill the narrative journey and character arcs and play with theatrical tools and with a Visual Vernacular Consultant, Zoe McWhinney to delve deeper into embodiment to support storytelling and accessibility in the work. This commission has supported me to collaborate with both these incredible women, enriching and developing my creative practice. They have been a safe sounding space for me, brilliant challengers and supporters on my journey and we’ve enjoyed exploring possibilities, journeying deep and having fun along the way!

Our personal experiences and responses to the themes in the show have been building momentum for me and the dance artists I am collaborating with. We have explored through journaling, drawing, discussion and embodiment, to shape the world we co create. I’ve enjoyed writing a sort of script and developing the characters’ arcs dramaturgically to find out what drives them to support intention, dynamic and quality. I’ve been drawn to explore magical realism and embrace the everyday. It has been the first time I integrate a structure into my work which is assembled and modified as it shape-shifts through the journey of the show with us to support storytelling and a promenade performance. I’ve felt guided by conversations with my collaborators and community and what has arisen within those spaces and moments. There’s a blend of planning and preparing before going into the studio to create and the magic of surprise and spontaneity to devise in the moment.

I  am discovering a process of research sitting in the mind and body and over time letting it seep out and manifest into forms of movement expression. Much like some of the themes in the work, the ritual and practice of planting seeds, nurturing and tending to them and watching them grow and crafting a wild garden, I am learning to trust the patterns, let the process unfold and unravel and for the work to reveal what it wants to be.

Tell us more about Roots to Rise

Roots to rise explores ancestry, agriculture, ecological activism and the wisdom of women. We follow 3 women as they travel through land, time and generations gravitating towards connection and interdependence to reimagine a renewed sense of community.

They alchemise generational trauma to lighten the load as they move through the melodies and rhythms of intergenerational relationships. They find harmony through the patterns and movements within the natural world, and the cycle of death, rebirth and life. South Asian rituals, remedies and recipes are remembered along with those they create for themselves. The story seeks to revive ancestral wisdom and embodied knowledge to regenerate our relationship with nature evoking resilience and resistance in ecology. Hopes and aspirations for future generations and the world we live in carry  them forward as they remember and honour acts of courage to stand up for and protect the land we are blessed to receive nourishment from.

What was the initial inspiration for the work?

During the lockdown phase, much like most, I was spending more time outdoors in nature. I began to shift my movement practice to the outdoors and this felt liberating and healing as my body and movement interests were changing. I looked out for interesting online offers to learn and challenge my mind and inspire my creative practice and I was drawn to a webinar with Vandhana Shiva, Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalisation author. Her thoughts and motivations for her body of work moved me as she shed more light on particular events in India I did not know much or anything about, namely The chipko movement, the violence of the green revolution and the farmers protests in Punjab.

I was deeply moved by ecological activism throughout history and images and research on women tending, protecting and standing up for Mother Earth. How the knowledge wisdom gained from working the land is passed on and can be honoured and preserved for future generations. Rituals, remedies and recipes began to feature more and more in my day to day life as I tuned more into myself and my senses. I became more curious about what we hold within our bodies and our intuition, more aware of women’s bodies, our rights, our sensuality and freedom of expression.

One year later I attended a Stepping out lab for South Asians who were curious about making outdoors work at 101 outdoors arts facilitated day Sud Basu and Simon Chatterton. As we stepped out onto Greenham Common, I learned about the Women’s peace camp which occupied this space for many years. Seeds of inspiration for Roots to Rise were vibrating within my cells. I began connecting the dots of my personal experience outdoors, its impact on my wellbeing and influence in my movement practice, my continuing research and a passion for the legacy of women’s wisdom and knowledge to thrive. 

What did you gain from your research and development work at OmVed Gardens?

In 2024, Roots to Rise R&D process was supported with a Seedbed Award from 101 Outdoor Arts, where selected artists were invited to push the boundaries of work for the outdoors and in public spaces. We were encouraged to explore a partnership with a non arts partner and I collaborated with OmVed Gardens –  a garden, exhibition and learning space exploring food, creativity and ecology for health and climate resilience. I had been keen to explore co-creation with community in my choreographic practice, and OmVed Gardens and the work they carry out and nurture relates to my research and it presented itself as the ideal setting for people to gather. I facilitated intergenerational gatherings for shared learning, wellbeing, exchange and reflection which manifested through workshops for International Women’s day, for the South Asian community and for members of the Asian Women’s Resource Centre guided by mindfulness, creative movement, journalling and discussion.

The energy of working in this new way to create and explore a dance work, was grounding, nourishing and joyful. Sharing our stories and memories in nature, with our cultures, rituals, remedies, recipes and our wishes for future generations was healing and empowering. With the dance artists we spent a day learning from Vicky, head of urban growing and Jo, head of creative and regenerative Kitchen and getting our hands dirty! 

We shared a site specific work in progress in the gardens, with its ponds, seedbeds, willow circle and winding paths which gently shaped and guided the journey of this promenade exploration. In this year’s development of the work, the experience with OmVed Gardens continues to be a driving force in the narrative and energy of each scene even if now we adapt the work to each festival site.

Through this experience, I learnt how to respond to environment, sit with nature, listen to it, feel it and let it seep into my imagination. Volunteering at the gardens regularly offered me the experience of working in community to learn and understand the nature we were cultivating and looking after. I experienced what it was like to take the audience on a journey and to explore some audience participation. I expanded my creative practice with this prelude of workshops and gatherings with community to inform and inspire moments within the work.

What do you want people to take away from the show/how do you want them to feel?

I hope Roots to Rise can offer audiences moments of reflection, during and beyond experiencing the show, on how they spend time in nature and take care of the natural world and themselves in their own ways. To remind them of their innate gifts and to rediscover and remember the wisdom from their families or cultures. It may encourage them to reflect on what they’d like to leave behind and pass on and what they no longer need to carry forward. I hope the moments in which audiences might join us within the show can offer them space to reconnect with themselves and embrace their self expression through movement and enjoy moving with those around them.

You’re classically trained and have performed at some of the most prestigious indoor venues in the UK. What does outdoor arts afford you?

Creating for the outdoors offers a very special and sacred intimacy with audiences, inviting them to hold the space with us and become part of the world we are creating. I am curious by the possibility of heightened response and reaction, by the space and barriers between performers and audience being less than an indoor venue. 

Inspired by the natural world and our relationship with it, sharing Roots to Rise outdoors in dialogue with nature, finds its alignment and grounding as the best possible stage and environment for the work to be performed in and experienced. 

Making work for the outdoors is encouraging me to discover how we can engage and interact with audiences within a show. And co-creating with the public brings me full circle in this experience with community!