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Shrishti Gandhi

My professional debut

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My name is Shrishti Gandhi and I have been a student with Sonia Sabri Company for 5 years learning Kathak from Sonia Sabri. I've also been with the company as an apprentice for just over a year now and I was very privileged to have had my professional debut earlier this year in June, in London at the Southbank Centre playing the role of the Queen in Mughal Miniatures: Scene 1 the Awakening. Read to find out more about my experience touring and working with Sonia Sabri Company.



A bit about me
I am British Asian. I was born in Bangalore and moved to the UK at the age of 4 years old, so I've been living in Birmingham for the last 18 years and it's been very interesting to have exposure to both the Western and Indian culture growing up. Because I wasn’t surrounded by the Indian culture in my teen years, I think it's really shaped me into the individual I am today as I have a greater appreciation for the Indian culture and it has found its way into my interests, especially Kathak, which is an Indian classical dance form.

 I want to be a medical writer and find a way to incorporate my love for neuroscience, which is what I studied at University , and my passion for dancing Kathak into my work. I really want to contribute also to expanding the literature available on South Asians and Indian Classical dance forms. Whilst at university during my research I found that Kathak was quite a specific niche which wasn't really explored and there wasn't much published about it so I would love to contribute to that specifically.

My professional debut
I found out that I was going to debut professionally with Sonia Sabri Company after a Kathak class on a Saturday when Sonia ma’am had suggested being part of Mughal Miniatures: Scene 1 The Awakening. It felt like an incredibly surreal moment, I had a mix of emotions because I felt so blessed and grateful to have been considered capable for this opportunity.

Working with SSCo
Working with Sonia Sabri Company has been a wonderful experience especially because I've been a student with them for over five years now so I'm very comfortable with the teaching style and I believe that both Sonia and Sarvar Sabri have created an incredibly welcoming environment for students where we feel very comfortable to ask questions and clear doubts. There's no sort of fear to ask for clarifications or to go over something more than once; it's a very friendly atmosphere in the studio. I think both inside and outside the studio Sonia ma’am has been incredibly supportive. She has always provided so much guidance which has allowed me to constantly improve and better myself and really push myself to my best abilities and see how much I can achieve if I was to try even harder. 



Touring experience
Touring for me has been an incredibly new and fun experience and it's very fulfilling to perform Mughal Miniatures in front of all age groups and backgrounds in various locations across the UK. It's really nice to see and hear all the different reactions from audiences either during the performance itself or afterwards when sometimes they do come and speak to us. They feedback what they thought about the performance and what they took away from it, which is really helpful because it helps us understand how the narrative is being delivered to audiences and it can also act as a way to let us know what we should improve upon in developing our characters.

Touring has massively contributed to improving my confidence dancing in front of a group of people, regardless of the size of the crowd. It requires a lot of courage and faith in yourself and your ability and I think this is definitely improved the longer I've been performing and is something I'm very grateful for.

Highlights and challenges while touring
I think the only challenges which stick out to me about touring and performing is the unpredictable nature of the weather because it means that we do have to be prepared for any last-minute changes in schedule and have to adapt accordingly.

On tour, there have been two moments which definitely stick out to me. The first is when we performed at the Birmingham Weekender because this was the first time my parents saw me performing as the Queen and this was quite an emotional moment for me. I was able to show my parents all the hard work that I had put into this character but I was also really pleased to hear their comments about how they were surprised at my portrayal of emotions throughout the piece which again shows that I was improving at Abhinay (expressions) and I was very pleased with that. Another moment which stands out for me on tour is before our first performance at the Greenwich Docklands International Festival we had a touch tour and this is where a visually impaired individual was able to talk with us and we were able to communicate the premise of the performance and the story of the characters just based on descriptions of our costume, such as the colour or how we had draped our veils or the jewellery we were wearing and it's important according to the context of the performance. It was very admirable to see this individual's interest in the performance but it also was a big lesson on inclusivity which I'm very grateful for.

What's next with SSCo
In terms of my hopes for the future with Sonia Sabri Company I would love to continue playing the role of the Queen in Mughal Miniatures: Scene 1 The Awakening because I feel I've really started to make this character my own. I think it would be really interesting to see if I could peel back any more layers to the Queen to better understand her as an individual and her personality because this would definitely improve my portrayal of the Queen to audiences and I'd be able to depict her thoughts, emotions and struggles even better and I think this would definitely enhance the performance from my part. I would love to experience more performance opportunities with the company as I think this would be an incredible way to challenge myself but also test the boundaries of my performing abilities and definitely push them further.


Shrishti Gandhi in red and white costume
photo credit - Maria Polodeanu