Features

Paula Lindo

6 hours ago

Indian classical Odissi dance artist Sade Budhlall has become the first person from Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean to win a Global South scholarship to the London Contemporary Dance School. She will study for a Masters in Dance: Participation, Communities and Activism.

The scholarship fully covers the cost of their studies at the British school, valued at £21,300. It is awarded to students who live and work permanently or regularly in one of the countries of the Global South and intend to complete at least part of their MA studies in that country.

WMN spoke to Budhlall in a phone interview on August 14.

Budhlall, 35, has been practicing Indian classical dance since her secondary school days at St. Augustine Senior Secondary School. She stopped during her A-levels and while studying psychology at the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (COSTAATrinidad and Tobago), she was drawn to classical Odissi dance, one of the eight classical dance forms of India.

She said Odissi dance is characterized by its fluid, graceful movements, intricate footwork and expressive facial gestures, and is often used to depict stories from Hindu mythology. The dance form is deeply spiritual and has traditionally been performed in temples as a form of devotion.

“At the age of 25, I began my training at the Nrityanjali Theatre in Trinidad and Tobago under the artistic direction of Guru Mondira Balkaransingh. I have been a member and performing in their shows for the past 10-11 years. In the last two years, I felt that I needed to deepen my understanding of the art form and refine my technique, so I approached Guru Sharon Lowen in India. She is a world-renowned expert on Odissi.”

Budhlall said she wanted to explore how she could connect Odissi to her life and experiences in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Odissi originates from Odisha, a state in India, and although it is a dance form that I have fallen in love with and means a lot to me, it is not part of my cultural heritage. It did not come with my ancestors, it did not come with the indentured workers who came to Trinidad and Tobago, and so over the years it has made me reflect on my own identity as a Trinidadian and Tobagoan.

“I also feel that classical Indian dance, including Odissi, in Trinidad and Tobago is more likely to be performed in Indo-Hindu spaces and I want to challenge that norm by making it much more accessible, contemporary and inclusive. There are such rich and diverse narratives in literature, in text, and I feel that by integrating Trinidadian ancestral rituals and cultural traditions, I could create a fusion that honors both the original form and my own cultural background. I feel that this inspiration will help me explore and express my identity more fully, while also bringing something new and culturally relevant to the world of Odissi.”

Budhlall said her research will focus in part on developing a teaching method that integrates the exploration of national identity through Trinbagonian ancestral rituals, cross-cultural celebrations and traditions.

“I think if I want to use dance for social change, if I want to use Odissi to address the current socio-political issues of society in Trinidad and Tobago, then my dance language has to be accessible, it has to be a language that people can relate to and that I understand. And I think that doesn’t really happen in Indian classical dance, where it’s mostly silos.

“The culture of Trinidad and Tobago is too rich, we have so much to offer and I feel that what I do has to do with national identity, cultural pride and what it means to be a classical Indian dancer from Trinidad and Tobago.”

One example of how Budhlall has begun to incorporate Trinidad and Tobago culture into her classical dance practice is her performance of Pranam, a ritual performed at the beginning and end of dance practices and performances. She said the ritual involves touching the head, touching the ground and asking Mother Earth for permission to stomp on her, and thanking God, the guru and the audience.

“I’ve been doing this for 11 years and I’ve never really thought about whose land I’m standing on, who was here before me. I’ve never thought about the indigenous people who were here, the Indians who were here, I’ve never thought about honoring the African slaves who were here, whose blood, sweat and tears literally built this country we call Trinidad and Tobago, and the slave laborers who came here who also lived under similar oppression. So now I’m trying to redefine how to do this ritual to fit it into our context.”

She said she recently decided to change her dance teaching methods during a workshop at Zante Children’s Camp.

“I wanted to do something that the children would recognise and understand and be proud of in terms of their heritage. So we made classical Indian dance movements into carnival characters, like how a Moko Jumbie moves as an Odissi dancer or how a blue devil moves. And they were so amazed and excited.

“I feel like when we break down dance movements in this way and make them accessible, the beauty is that we realize that the roots of these movements are so similar. African dances, Indian dances – when you break them down to their core, they’re so similar, and I think one reason I want to cover cross-cultural traditions and mention dance is because it focuses on the similarities rather than the differences, which makes it easier for people to enjoy each other’s cultures, to come together and experience this unity and fusion of the celebration of movement.”

She said she has incorporated poems from Trinidad and Tobago into her dances and recently used African drummers as part of a performance. She has used the practices of Kalinda and Gatka as models of restoration, activism, community bonding and resistance in dance training.

Another aspect of her research will be the integration of phenomenology to understand the relationship between the mind and body of the dancer and his audience.

“I’ve found that in classical Indian dance training we place a lot of emphasis on repetition to achieve perfection and performance. In all my years of training, when I’ve been in a dance studio or in a dance class, I’ve never asked myself how I feel when I’m doing these movements, how does my body feel? Where in my body are tensions? What am I bringing to dance class, what stresses and frustrations am I bringing into my body? These are things that I think need to change when it comes to how we train dancers, because it helps dancers and teachers connect to their own life experiences and it makes the movement much more conscious and meaningful.”

She also plans to focus on embodied activism and leadership development.

“Embodied activism sensitizes the body as a site of resistance, a tool for social change. Leadership development is about strengthening dancers’ abilities to challenge harmful social norms, advocate for justice and equality, and foster a sense of responsibility to their communities. Bringing all of these elements together creates a holistic approach to dance education in Trinidad and Tobago that is both transformative and impactful.”

Budhlall said she applied for this particular master’s program because it combined her two career paths: dance and humanitarian work. During her time at COSTAAT, she had started volunteering to fill her time and has worked continuously in the humanitarian field since then. She currently sits on the board of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross and has also worked as a freelance humanitarian consultant for 11 years.

“My teacher in India is an academic and a Fulbright scholar. I saw how she applied academic insights to her work and I was really interested in doing something similar but couldn’t find a program that really appealed to me. I’ve done a lot of work in humanitarian consulting, from disaster relief to policy development, and I was really looking for a way to combine the two, but I thought it was impossible. This particular program intrigued me because it essentially uses dance as a tool for social change and I just thought, wow, my two careers could actually merge together, this is exactly what I wanted to do.”

Budhlall said there is a perception that people who pursue academic careers distance themselves from the communities in which they conduct research, but the program she enrolled in was specifically designed to avoid that.

“What I like about this course is that it’s a Masters in Participation, Communities and Activism. A big part of that is being deeply embedded in your community and designing based on your own life experience and the life experience of community members. There’s a strong emphasis on community engagement and exploring really diverse cultural narratives.

“Yes, you produce and conduct research, and your academic practice has a strong academic component, but everything you do is based on cultural relativism and on using the perspective of the community embedded within you.”

Budhlall said she was excited to start studying in September, but was a little nervous.

“As I prepare for school, I feel it is a great honor. But also because I am the first Trinidad and Tobago citizen and the first native Caribbean in this special scholarship program, I feel a sense of responsibility. I feel that the recognition is not only for my individual work, but also for the potential that not only Caribbean culture holds in relation to the global arts landscape, but also Indian classical dance. What will I contribute to this art form?

“On a more positive note, I feel like I’m bringing a really unique perspective to the London Contemporary Dance School that’s rooted in the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, because I want my work to be really informed by the traditions of our music and dance, even our spiritual practices and traditions, and I really want to integrate those elements into a broader discourse about dance and activism. I’m really excited about that.”