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Sonia Sabri Company’s brand new production ROSHNI to head on tour
Via for Sonia Sabri Company
July 2022L From August Sonia Sabri Company (SSco) will be embarking on UK tour dates with ROSHNI, a brand-new dance and music production.
The production acclaimed award-winning Birmingham-based Sonia Sabri Company is currently in rehearsal in Birmingham, home to one of the largest dance hubs outside London, will bring together the world-class multi-talented skills of husband and wife team and SSco Founders Sonia Sabri and Sarvar Sabri for the first time in over a year due to the pandemic.
ROSHNI, meaning light, brilliance, enlightenment in Persian, is a soul-stirring, combination of Kathak dance, with live music from a global palette of styles, driven by the bold rhythms of Tabla percussion.
ROSHNI brings together Sonia’s distinctive style of dance, rooted in the traditions of Kathak from Northern India. Sonia’s lived British experience and fuses diverse musical genres and artists, ranging from South Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe, celebrating the rich diversity of our global community.
Sonia Sabri, who recently helped choreograph the large outdoor production Wondrous Stories which opened Birmingham 2022 Festival, is amongst the brightest and most inspirational of British-born dancer-choreographers working in the twenty-first century. Creating work that spans from the presentation of classical North Indian Kathak to explorations of contemporary approaches. Sonia is currently a Cultural Leader choreographing for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games which will be watched by over 1 billion people across the globe.
Sarvar Sabri is an internationally renowned Tabla player and composer who regularly works across artforms and for theatre, TV, radio and film. His versatility and passion for the rich diversity of the world’s musical traditions have spurred him to constantly experiment with other world-class musicians and composers, and to extend the boundaries of his own classical form.
Sonia said:
It is proving a very exciting summer for us as we continue to celebrate the 20th anniversary of SSco. Our outdoor production Mughal Miniatures celebrating the deep-rooted cultural, political, and human links between Birmingham and the Indian subcontinent premiered its preview taster at the recent Birmingham International Dance Festival 2022 and is now enjoying its first tour.
And, in recent months, we have brought together talented musicians from around the world to create our first Global Music Youth Ensemble currently performing at festivals.
With the latter proving a massive hit with audiences both myself and Sarvar are very excited to be performing together in ROSHNI which will receive its world premiere at the Belfast Lyric Theatre as part of the Belfast Mela before going on to Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Wales and Bradford with further tour dates to be announced.”
ROSHNI also features the musical talents of Katie Stevens and Ruth Lyndsay. Katie who received her classical training on the clarinet at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire specialises in eastern European, Klezmer, Irish and Scandinavian music, playing traditional woodwinds such as the Bulgarian Kaval, Irish Flute and Whistles, Swedish Pipa and Arabic Nay. Ruth is a Violinist who specialises in Folk and traditional music as well as having a degree in Classical Music from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
ROSHNI‘s tour will premire at:
- Belfast Lyric Theatre on Monday 22nd August, as part of Belfast Mela.
- Shrewsbury Folk Festival on Sunday 28th August.
- Blackwood Miners Theatre Wales on Saturday 26th November.
- Kala Sangam Bradford’s intercultural arts hub on Thursday 17th November.
Further tour dates will be announced shortly via the website www.ssco.org.uk/tour_calendar/calendar.php
ROSHNI, which aims to transport and uplift audiences on a journey of joy, is suitable for all ages, those new to Kathak as well as regular Kathak fans. Funded by Arts Council England.
