Sonia Sabri Company Site specific, Tigers Mingle

And Tigers Mingle

Sonia Sabri performed a unique production in collaboration with Spoken Word artist Dreadlock Alien, produced by Black Country Touring and supported by The National Trust. The production took place in a Victorian house - Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton, brought to life with hidden stories, imagined histories, passion and charm. Known to broaden and challenge the perception of Kathak, Sonia created and performed a ravishing movement language in dialogue with slam and verse. Audiences experienced a delicious treat. In this two week long project, four performances took place.

Weaving Paths Through Time

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Weaving Paths (through time) was an exciting partnership project between Black Country Touring, Wolverhampton Arts and Museums Service and the Sonia Sabri Company.

For the first three-weeks in May 2007 the Sonia Sabri Company were resident at Bantock House in Wolverhampton, creating extracts in response to the house and gardens, using Kathak (North Indian) dance and South Asian music, which was contrasted by western instrumentation.
During the residency the company could be seen and heard throughout the house creating new work. The team focused on creating work in a new area of the house over the period, which meant new performances were added to the event every week. The final day of performances showed all the work that had been created during the entire residency.

The first piece was set in the Drawing Room. Sonia Sabri along with the dances choreographed a piece that drew upon the formalities of the room. The dancers told stories of possible conflicts and drama that could have disturbed the general staid atmosphere in the room.

During the piece members of the public were given slips of paper with instructions, this meant that when the piece ended and the dancers all exited the room it left the audience were positioned and posed as if in a Tapestry of gentry life.

In the Arts & Crafts Room and Staircase a lecturer and students from the University of Wolverhampton with skills in contact improvisation co-created a piece with Sonia Sabri. The piece started with the lightness of childhood play and developed into a turbulent transition into adulthood.

The dancers were accompanied by frenetic strings and a deep resonating voice. Musical Director, Sarvar Sabri worked with professional and community musicians to create the musical back drop for this piece.

The audience was then taken upstairs to the newly refurbished Billiard Room where power, competition and masculinity were portrayed through the rhythm of clattering billiard balls and stamping feet.

The audience was finally led outside to the beautiful Dutch Garden where Shikidim (a local belly-dancing troupe) began a dance, accompanied by Gulfam Sabri and two female singers singing a classical Turkish song. Sonia Sabri then danced a traditional Kathak solo inspired by the formality, geometry and splendour of the garden. The garden piece culminates with Sonia and the dancers and Shikidim joined by the young Kathakaars (Sonia Sabri Company's sister group) who were dressed in beautiful embroidered and opulent costumes. Together they all animated the space through leaps and twirls.