Sharing the Light – Welcome Diwali

We are delighted to be a part of Sharing the Light - Welcome Diwali in partnership with Birmingham Hippodrome + Bullring & Grand Central.  This is a large-scale FREE outdoor participatory performance event taking place across Friday 21 and Saturday 22 October at Bullring & Grand Central, co-produced by Sonia Sabri Company and German Puppeteers Dundu – The Giants of Light.

From dusk (6.30pm) Birmingham will burst into life to welcome Diwali with a festival of light. Featuring breathtaking puppets by Dundu, dhol drummers and dance performances by Sonia Sabri Company.

The dance processions will involve a wonderful group of community dancers led by four fantastic dance artists:

The four dancers taking part in Sharing the Light are:

Aakanksha Rawat is originally from India and has a degree in Business Marketing. She pursued her passion for dance and has been working with Sonia Sabri Company for five years. Aakanksha is a part of Sonia Sabri Company's teaching faculty. She also leads dance workshops in community settings, for children and adults and has also lead workshops for National Youth Ballet School. 

She performs regularly with Kathakaaars alongside organising and leading Kathakaars sessions. She started touring for “Same Same But Different” in 2019 and toured the show in 2021 and 2022. 

She has also performed in the opening ceremony of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and has recently performed in the company’s new production, “Mughal Miniatures Preview” in 2022.

Selene Travaglia is a London-based dance artist born in Trento, Italy. She started her professional studies in Milan and then she continued her journey at Trinity Laban in London. She graduated in 2016 with a first class degree and in 2017 with a MA in Dance Performance. Selene was a company member of Transitions Dance Company in London for the season 2016/17 and she now works  and tours nationally and internationally as a freelance dance artist with Wriggle Dance Theatre, Fuora Dance Project, Jess Murray Dance, Baejjahn Dance Company, Keneish Dance, A Truefitt Collective, Sonia Sabri Company and other choreographers in Europe. Selene was cast as one of the main characters of the experimental film ‘Prisoners of the Body’ in Munich directed by Elisa Nadal which has been selected as one of the four finalist films in the "National / International Experimental Film" category at the Student Oscars ® 2020 in Los Angeles. 

Selene also performed and toured interdisciplinary works by the research oriented artist and writer Monika Jaeckel in 2020 and the poet Adam Kammerling in 2022.

Helen Calcutt is known for her dynamism and versatility as a poet, performer, choreographer, and dance artist. With a strong background in theatre, Helen is trained in Cuban rhythms, Contemporary dance, and commercial (hip-hop), and works with specialisms in the intersections between text, voice and movement.  Her artistic work is wide ranging, from live television, to professional dance work, choreographic commissions, and community teaching. She has shared her practice, collaborated, and toured with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, The REP, Midland’s Actors Theatre, Fabric (DanceXchange) Autin Dance Theatre, Birmingham 2022, and Sonia Sabri Company. She was awarded a DYCP from Arts Council England to expand on her interdisciplinary practice in poetry and dance in April 2021, with further research supported by One Dance U.K. She was nominated for a Women in Dance Award with AWA Dance, 2020. Helen is the author of three volumes of poetry. Her latest collection, ‘Somehow’ (Verve Poetry Press, 2020) was a PBS Winter Bulletin Pamphlet, and a Poetry School Book of the Year. She was one of the six poets selected to write and perform for the opening ceremony

Ella May is a dance artist and facilitator from Ludlow, Shropshire and has recently completed her MA in Dance Performance with Mapdance at The University of Chichester. 

Ella has worked with and toured works by Kiera Martin, Sarah Golding, Robert Clark and James Cousins. 

Ella is really enjoying being back in the West Midlands as part of this project and looks forward to bringing joy through dance to the people of Birmingham.

 

Find out more about the event here:

https://www.bullring.co.uk/events/diwali

and make sure that you follow us on our social media channels for behind the scenes action!

https://www.facebook.com/soniasabricompany 
https://twitter.com/SoniaSabriCo

https://www.instagram.com/soniasabrico