SALIDAA Newsletter
30/11/2006

WELCOME to SALIDAA’s December newsletter. Read the SALIDAA News , check out the Voicebox , and see the Spotlight on featured artists. Get In the Picture about recent launches and browse the extensive December Events Listings . View information for students, researchers, academics and arts practitioners in Calls for papers /Opportunities – this month there are notices for playwrights, researchers, and dancers.

Back to top

Deadeye at Soho Theatre…
The Kali Asian Women Talk Back Festival took place at the Soho Theatre in London from 14–25th November (with alternative regional tour dates) and kicked off with a performance of Deadeye, written by Amber Lone and directed by Janet Steel. The play took us right into the lived spaces of a Birmingham community: the Asian family home where the tense balancing acts of a family marked by generational and cultural differences take place, mirrored in the sparse garden where a re-rooted Kashmiri plant struggles to flourish; the bare room where young second-generation Kashmiris and Irish mix up ideas of belonging, commitment and family in a dope-filled haze; the littered public spaces inhabited by both material refuse and human outcasts. A finely understated performance was given by Chetna Pandya as the central character Deema, the young woman who struggles to hold the quiet centre of her disintegrating family while also trying to mark out her own way in life. Deema’s junkie brother Tariq, whose dual fragility and recklessness were conveyed well by the physicality of Shane Zaza’s performance, constantly threatens the family balance while father Rafique’s self-aggrandizing dreams of buying a country estate when his house is about to be repossessed drive her stooped and embattled mother Zainab, played brilliantly by Sakuntala Ramanee, to moments of short-lived yet startling rebellion. Pushpinder Chani as sleazy cousin Jimmy, a snaky drug-dealer, who manages to dupe Deema’s parents into thinking he is good husband material for their independent daughter and Beth Vyse as Kerry who has deluded dreams of becoming Jimmy’s Asian wife in plasticky stilettos and cheap gold hoop ear-rings round out the excellent cast. Leaving the Soho Theatre, my impression was of honest and compelling acting, fluid and professional production, and a fresh and bold voice in British theatre that I hope we get to hear much more from.

Click here to see the Kali call for the Talk Back Festival 2007

Do you have a review of a recent event, book or film that you’d like to share with the SALIDAA community? We invite you to sound out the Voicebox for yourself. Write in with 200-300 words to sharanya@salidaa.org and let us hear your voice. Please write in before the 21st December 2006 for January’s issue.

Back to top

Bollywood Breaks Sampler - CD Sleeve, 2000
Outcaste Records (1994- )
Copyright: Outcaste Records
This full colour CD compilation album was released in January 2000 by Outcaste Records. Entitled Bollywood Breaks Sampler, the album features eight renowned Indian film soundtracks combined with break beats, western-style drums, bass lines and guitars. This CD album sleeve includes three digital images.
Click here to see the Outcaste Records Collection

Back to top

*NEW COLLECTION: RAVINDER RANDHAWA*
Writer Ravinder Randhawa moved to England at the age of seven. The founding member of the Asian Women Writer’s Collective, Randhawa has also written three novels and numerous short stories. The full collection contains digital extracts of her novels and of several short stories, manuscripts for a poem and a play, posters, and a launch invite.
Click here to see the Ravinder Randhawa Collection

An urgent notice from the Guardians of the Theatre Museum
We have until January 7 2007 to save the Theatre Museum’s building in Covent Garden in the heart of London’s Theatreland. Most of the UK’s major theatre organisations are backing our campaign. Will you join us? You will find the background to our campaign on our website www.theatremuseumguardians.org.uk We are not asking you for money or effort, just your voice: what we want is for you to complete the simple form you will find on the website.

Researcher’s Directory: We aim to provide a forum for ongoing engagement with our collections, and invite all those interested in South Asian Diaspora literature and arts to contribute to a Researcher’s Directory that will appear on our website. The list may be used as a point of contact for those interested in debate, discussion and collaboration with others and it will foster a research community around the SALIDAA digital archive. If you are interested in being included in the directory, please send your name, affiliation, areas of research/interest, and email address to sharanya@salidaa.org.uk.

Forthcoming Events: If you would like the SALIDAA Newsletter to list your forthcoming events please email sharanya@salidaa.org with all details including Event Title, Dates and Times, Location, Description (max. 200 words), Admission Fees. Please notify us about your forthcoming event by the 25th of each preceding month, i.e. to have your event listed in January’s newsletter, please send information by 25 December.

Back to top

The Queen’s Hinglish: How to Speak Pukka by Baljinder K. Mahal
(Collins, November 2006)
Baljinder Mahal, a teacher and novelist from Derby, has compiled this dictionary of “Hinglish”, a blend of English combined with Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. If you want to learn how to speak pukka then you can find older usages that have long been incorporated into the English language (shampoo, pyjama, pundit, dungarees, bungalow) alongside newer terms including such gems as “air-dash” (to travel by air at short notice), "prepone" (the opposite of postponing or to bring something forward), and the verb “to bangalore” in the sense of the Times of India reporting that “Brand India has shaken, stirred and otherwise Bangalored the world's consciousness." As Mahal says, "There might be puritans in any culture who say you can only be the master of one language, and that you shouldn't try to cross two languages. But do we only have one fixed identity? I don't think so, I think we can step in and out of different identities - and we can do the same with languages.”

Back to top

Kali TalkBack Festival 2007
Kali is looking for innovative and inspiring short and full length theatre scripts by Asian women for the TalkBack Festival 2007. Submitted plays must be original works and not previously performed or performed professionally. For more information visit www.kalitheatre.co.uk
Deadline: 02 February 2007

New Writing Workshop - Tamasha
This is an outstanding training opportunity for emerging or aspiring British Asian playwrights. This fully-subsidised course, run in partnership with the British Library, will offer eight writers intensive training in Tamasha's innovative, research-based approach to developing new writing for theatre. Participants will benefit from a varied programme of workshops exploring a range of techniques, as well as guest lecturers, theatre trips and the chance to focus on their own writing with a professional dramaturg. The two-week course is offered free to successful applicants. Participants will receive a weekly allowance towards lost earnings, and can also apply for money towards relocation expenses if travelling from outside Greater London. Click here for more information or email info@tamasha.org.uk for an application pack.
Deadline: 04 December 2006, 17.00

Bengal Diaspora Project. Fixed term appointment: 24 months full time. Salary: £28,186 pa, LSE
Applications are invited from candidates who have a doctorate (or equivalent research-based qualifications) in a social science, with experience of qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, and with an emerging track record of high-quality research and publication on Bengali communities in the United Kingdom. You will join a research team working on a comparative inter-disciplinary research project on the Bengali diaspora in South Asia and the United Kingdom. You will have an excellent command over Bengali and Sylheti. Researchers with an interest in migration and diaspora are particularly strongly encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will be expected to start work on 1 April 2007, or as soon as possible after that date. For a full application pack, please email HR.Recruit.Res@lse.ac.uk or phone 020 7955 6737. Reference 11/06/RES
Deadline: 19 December 2006

Lisa Ullmann Travelling Scholarship Fund
Supporting individual journeys in movement and dance. Enabling movement and dance practitioners to travel to enrich their practice and pursue a personal passion. The aim of this small charity is to provide financial support to individuals who wish to travel abroad or in the United Kingdom to attend a conference, to pursue a research project or undertake a short course of study in the field of movement of dance. Successful applicants will have convinced the Committee of the importance of their journey and what it means to them to undertake it at this time. The impact of the journey both personally and/or for the wider dance community will be considered. Each application is considered according to its merit and the decision of the Management Committee is final. ELIGIBILITY: Applications must be from individuals, not institutions, groups or companies; Support is for TRAVEL ONLY. LUTSF does not pay fees; LUTSF does not pay subsistence; Travel must originate in and return to the United Kingdom; Applicants must have been resident in the UK for a minimum of two years; Support is not given for travel to and from institutions for fulltime or 'long courses', that is courses extending over 1, 2 or 3 years; these include most degree and post graduate courses; projects which directly support the work of institutions and professional companies, and which should most appropriately be funded by them, are not eligible for support; Scholarships are not given for setting up projects or festivals; Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. Print your application form from the website or send an A5 SAE to the Secretary, LUTSF, 24 Cuppin Street, Chester, CH1 2BN.
Deadline: Application Forms must be sent BY POST to arrive by 25 January 2007

Auditions for Bollywood Dancers
Calling professional and versatile dancers to audition to be part of a Bollywood dance production which will tour around Europe during 2007 with the Dancing Nikita Company! THE DANCING NIKITA COMPANY are an established Indian & Bollywood dance company based in West London. They have an outstanding troupe of professional dancers who represent the company by performing regularly at private and corporate events in the UK. They have an impressive portfolio of performing at high profile events for clients such as Ford, BMI, Phyzier Pharmacutical, BBC, Sukshinder Shinder, Kemal from Big Brother and many more. In 2007, Nikita and her professional dance troupe will be putting together their own Bollywood dance production which they will tour across Germany, Austria and other countries of Europe. The company are auditioning for versatile & professional standard dancers to join their company and perform as part of this production, which will tour all over Europe during the year 2007. If a dancer cannot commit to such a project they are still welcome to audition to perform as part of the company’s professional troupe based in West London. Ideally, the applicant will be ethnic, versatile and will have strong techniques and experience of Classical Indian / Bollywood / Modern-Western dance forms. It is vital for the dancer to have extremely strong pick up, grace, expression and stage presence. The dancer will need to be committed to rehearsals which will take place in West London and be available to take on long term contracts. Dancers who are not well trained or experienced but are interested in training up with our company please see our website for class details. If you are interested in any of these opportunities with the Dancing Nikita Company then please e-mail your CV/profile and photographs to: E-mail: admin@Dancingnikitacompany.com Website: www.dancingnikitacompany.com
Apply before 01 January 2007

Open Auditions: Beyond the Five Senses
Nupur Arts are holding open auditions for our next dance production Beyond the Five Senses. Dancers will have the chance to work with the leading dance exponent of Bharat Natyam, Chitraleka Bolar who will be choreographing the production dance pieces. Dancers should have basic experience in Bharat Natyam or Contemporary Dance and should be able to demonstrate good dance technique. This dance project will be ideal for dancers who are looking for further performance opportunities and would like to further their dance skills in choreography. Auditions will take place on Saturday 09 December between 18:30 – 21:00 at Belgrave Neighbourhood Centre, Rothley Street, Leicester. The production will be performed in April 2007 (TBC) and you will need to be available for dance workshops and rehearsals from January to April 2007. Please contact Nupur Arts for an audition form and for further information. Email: info@nupurarts.org.uk / Tel: 07801365779/ web: www.nupurarts.org.uk

Back to top

Please note: This archived version of the SALIDAA newsletter does not contain the monthly events listings. If you would like to be signed up to receive the full newsletter please email sharanya@salidaa.org.uk.

Back to top