Named after the Greek goddess of dance and chorus and also an allusion to historian Sally Banes’ seminal book on postmodern dance “Terpsichore in Sneakers,” Terpsichore is a podcast celebrating dancers, choreographers, and bodies in motion. Curated and hosted by dance critic and writer Emily May, Terpsichore interviews leading voices from the dance industry about their lives, careers, and the artists that have inspired them.
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Named after the Greek goddess of dance and chorus and also an allusion to historian Sally Banes’ seminal book on postmodern dance “Terpsichore in Sneakers,” Terpsichore is a podcast celebrating dancers, choreographers, and bodies in motion. Curated and hosted by dance critic and writer Emily May, Terpsichore interviews leading voices from the dance industry about their lives, careers, and the artists that have inspired them.
Shobana Jeyasingh CBE is a London-based choreographer. Born in Chennai, India, Shobana trained in Bharata Natyam (the classical dance of Tamil Nadu) and read English Literature before founding her eponymous company in 1989. Since then, she has created over 60 critically acclaimed works for stage, screen, and out and indoor sites, ranging from Palladian monasteries in Venice to contemporary fountains in London.
Shobana’s work is known for both its intellectual rigour and visceral physicality. It is rooted in her experience and perspective of life as a female postcolonial citizen of the world. Over the course of a distinguished career she has collaborated with scientists, curators, composers, film makers, digital creatives, dancers and designers to make dynamic multi-disciplinary work that places the body centre stage in the dialogue of ideas.
On 19th and 20th August 2023, Shobana will be restaging her site specific work ‘Counterpoint’ in the courtyard of Somerset House in London as part of the venue’s Summer in the Courtyard series and Westminster City Council's Inside Out festival. Originally choreographed in 2010, the work contrasts the powerful curves and thrilling physicality of 22 dancers with the formal lines of the neoclassical courtyard and modernist fountains. Ahead of the performances, I couldn’t wait to talk to Shobana about the original inspirations behind the piece, as well as her career long investigations into composition and writing stories with the body.
Terpsichore: Voices in Dance
Named after the Greek goddess of dance and chorus and also an allusion to historian Sally Banes’ seminal book on postmodern dance “Terpsichore in Sneakers,” Terpsichore is a podcast celebrating dancers, choreographers, and bodies in motion. Curated and hosted by dance critic and writer Emily May, Terpsichore interviews leading voices from the dance industry about their lives, careers, and the artists that have inspired them.