INTERVIEW: Dance artist Sooraj Subramaniam explores ‘Other Places of Being’ with January Low

Photo: Sooraj Subramaniam performs in his new collaborative dance work Other Places of Being. He developed the piece with fellow dance artist January Low. Photo courtesy of Karolina Maruszak / Provided by press rep with permission.

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Sooraj Subramaniam, a successful dance artist, recently teamed up with January Low, another successful dance artist, for the creative project Other Places of Being, which will be available to stream virtually Nov. 1-15. The world-premiere production comes courtesy of New York City’s Baryshnikov Arts Center.

In the piece, both Subramaniam and Low explore their parallel journeys with the Odissi Indian classical dance form, according to press notes. How they came together to create this dance is a fascinating story. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the world turned toward a new form of necessary physical isolation, but, because the two choreographers rekindled an old friendship a few years ago, they started collaborating over virtual platforms during the lockdown. The result of their efforts is Other Places of Being. Their friendship is one of the inspirations for the show, along with social media and technology, which was the means by which they reconnected.

The two share many hats for the production. Subramaniam conceived, directed and video edited the piece, while both dance artists are responsible for the screenplay, choreography, music score and performance. This is a true collaboration.

Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Subramaniam, whose training in Bharatanatyam and Odissi took place in Malaysia. He has also worked in Australia, the United Kingdom and Belgium, where he has been based for the last decade. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

Could you talk a little about your relationship with January Low? How did you two know each other and then reconnect?

January and I both studied dance at the Sutra Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, led by guru Ramli Ibrahim. She was a few years my junior, and I remember her as a quiet, curious person.

I left for Australia for university when I was 17, but would be back in Kuala Lumpur during summer breaks, inevitably spending most of my time at Sutra. On one of those trips, January and I performed together for the first time. We found then that we had similar dancing styles: even-tempered, attentive.

Eventually I graduated and left for London. And January had become the principal dancer at Sutra, taking on more responsibilities with teaching and touring. We lost touch.

In 2014, after years of having not met, I saw her perform a solo in Odisha, India. We started keeping in touch again. I was living in Belgium, and she was married too and had twins! We’d each chartered completely different courses — I’d worked for a string of companies in the UK and was freelancing, and Jan had left Sutra by then and had done many independent projects — but increasingly our philosophies seemed to match: the ‘outwardness’ of performance seemed at odds with our introversion. Away from the spectacle of performance we were looking for intimacy with and immersion in dance, and found resonance in our conversations. 

The lockdowns, debilitating as they’ve been for most, allowed us to keep in touch and support each other’s growth. 

How did you create Other Places of Being? Did you have to work remotely?

There was no other option; the world was shut down. Zoom and FaceTime have been saviours. In the beginning we’d started meeting a couple of times a week, just to practice yoga or have a chat. And then we’d independently started virtual mentorships with Odissi exponent Bijayini Satpathy based in Bengaluru, India. So we had yet another intersecting point of reference. When the commission from Baryshnikov Arts Center came, I didn’t think twice before asking Jan if she’d work with me. While the initial idea for the work was mine, we negotiated the entire process together, cross-checking the screenplay, camera frames, sound scores, etc. 

Is dance presented virtually as effective and powerful as dance experienced in person?

I think the different mediums speak to different things, so it might not be fair to compare them. As novice filmmakers, we watched a lot of other dance films for inspiration and observed how the camera helped draw your attention to particular things. I marvel at all the cleverness! In that respect, certainly for me, a dance film is more engaging than watching a recording of a stage performance. 

In person, it is pure movement that shapes mood and intention. For example, one of the strengths of classical Indian dance is to be able to bring alive poetry using fine hand gestures and nuanced facial expressions sans complex theatrics; to be fully appreciated this requires the intimacy of the live performance, which has an evocative power that’s inimitable. 

Do you feel the pandemic has given choreographers a lot more inspiration to tackle issues like isolation, loneliness and health in their work?

I don’t think the pandemic has revealed anything new about suffering. What it has done, however, is expose how we’ve been working in the industry, uncover the unhealthy habits we’ve accumulated over decades in the name of productivity and excellence.

The last couple of years has turned things on their head: the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, our changing climate, and the current pandemic being foremost in my mind as causing seismic shifts to our societies. I’m least interested in whether or not anyone makes work about such things; it’s entirely the prerogative of makers to find their inspiration wherever. However, I find it deeply suspect if we don’t use these opportunities to shift how we work. For me the principles of resilience are awareness and adaptability, not bulldozing on with bad habits.

Other Places of Being happens to be about us; it touches on our isolation, yes, and looks at our relationship with dance across a screen, across time zones. But it was significant to us that our manner of working reflected our conditions, and that in working through the disquiet we cultivated quietude. Everything was filmed on our phones, only in the spaces we’d normally inhabit, edited by ourselves, respecting all constraints caused by the lockdowns, adjusting to each other’s schedules, moods, commitments. We’d check in with each other first as friends, and only then as colleagues. 

When did you first fall in love with dance?

I can’t be sure. From the very beginning, I suspect. It creeps up on you, and then suddenly you’re in the deep end, anchored and buoyant all at once. 

Have you performed in front of a live audience yet?

Things have opened up somewhat in Europe, so yes, I’ve had the privilege of performing at outdoor summer festivals, and more recently in theatres. Sharing performance with an audience is electric!

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Other Places of Being, by Sooraj Subramaniam and January Low, will be presented virtually Nov. 1-15, courtesy of the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Click here for more information and tickets.