Indian dance premiere aims to preserve culture

Urja Desai Thakore started the Pagrav Dance Company in Milton Keynes 20 years ago

A premiere of a new performance of the traditional northern Indian dance Kathak aims to encourage the next generation to take on the artform.

Milton Keynes-based Pagrav Dance Company will present "ROOH: Within Her", by the award-winning choreographer Urja Desai Thakore, in the city on Saturday.

Ms Desai Thakore, who moved to the city in 2003, said the work was "stemmed out of my desire to do something different to what I've done before".

The piece talks about the "untold stories of female bravery in a contemporary contact, like I would talk with my daughter", she added.

The word 'rooh' means 'essence' in Gujarati

The dancer has joined forces with internationally recognised poet and dramaturg Karthika Nair, to explore narratives of female bravery sourced from legend, folklore and true family stories.

She said the "storytelling artform is the way I lead my life and is a way to express myself".

"If we don't preserve our culture, if we don't preserve our ways of telling stories and stores which reflect what we are, it's going to get lost," she said.

"We want to make sure the next generation is thinking in Kathak.

"They need to learn the original style, then they can make their own sentences."

Urja Desai Thakore said she had learned new skills from creating her latest dance show

Mira Salat, a teacher, student and dancer with the company, said Kathak "connects me to my heritage, it connect me to my roots".

"It is so much more than a historical dance - it allows for exploration in my creativity.

"To lose it would be to lose something really great in the world."

She said the work Ms Desais Thakore had been doing in the city for 20 years "paved the way for Kathak dancers in the UK - she's created pathways for all South Asian dancers and all dancers in general".

Mira Salat said learning Kathak "always challenges you and makes you a better person"

Ashwini Mahatre, a dancer and teacher, said the artform helped her to understand her culture and express herself.

She said the amount of work Ms Desais Thakore had put in to "keep this dance form alive is incredible".

Ashwini Mahatre has danced since childhood and said she always wanted to learn the Kathak dance form

Ms Desais Thakore said there was a need "to keep the artwork alive" and was happy to "encourage the next generation to become full-time dancers".

She said some South Asian communities encouraged their children to be doctors or engineers, but parents should allow their children "to take their own path".

"I was lucky to have parents that encouraged me when I wanted to become a doctor, they said you're made for arts, you should do arts," she said.

Urja Desai Thakore learned to dance in India

"ROOH: Within Her" will premiere at The Venue, Milton Keynes, on Saturday and then transfer to The Lowry in Salford on 14 January, Cambridge Junction on 18 and 19 February and Sadler's Wells, London, from 24 to 26 April.