Ritualizing Writing
Our writer in residence, Shivani Joshi, had the opportunity to interview Brannavy Jeyasundaram about her new book "We Will Remember this":
Brannavy reflects on her time and experiences with Nova Dance over the past few years. She shares how her writing practice evolved throughout the pandemic, and speaks to the importance of South Asian voices in the dance community.
Jeyasundaram first came across Nova Bhattacharya during a performance of Decoding Bharatnatyam, where the resonance of Nova’s work struck deep. Jeyasundaram felt moved and inspired by the show, having seen Bharatnatyam techniques explored in a way that she had not been exposed to before, she says. “[Bhattacharya] had such an effective, almost charismatic way of describing shifts within public programs for arts in Toronto,” she said, after hearing Bhattacharya on CBC Metro Morning.
Shortly afterwards, Jeyasundaram submitted a review of the piece to the Dance Current, titled Story-Being. They both felt affirmed by the article and being able to converse on a shared understanding of dance and the forms it draws from, in contrast to art criticism that stems from a western contemporary dance lens. Later on, Bhattacharya invited Jeyasundaram into her creative process to write about her work, offering the beginning of a meaningful connection between the two.
“Being honored for taking the time to reflect and write on movement from a foundation of South Asian dance was affirming...”
“We built a relationship where she would always make room and time for me to write about her work, or connect me to like-minded people in the Toronto dance scene. . . She deeply understood the importance of writing and recording about dance”, acknowledged Jeyasundaram, as publications in dance journalism experience a steady decline. Being honored for taking the time to reflect and write on movement from a foundation of South Asian dance was affirming, she adds.
Bhattacharya’s community-building exists beyond movement as she encouraged conversations between artists and writers to connect and develop their practice. Jeyasundaram notes that she was paired with a mentor during the pandemic, challenged to create and maintain a daily writing ritual when time stood still in lockdown. Jeyasundaram and Gita Kolanand would write on zoom together, finding ways to ‘write as practice, not as pressure’, she says. This intentional support system helped her develop a sustainable writing practice. Her writing developed into compilation of essays, titled Embodiments of Grief, which made its’ way into a larger book collaboration between Dance Collection Danse and Nova Dance. Curated by Jeyasundaram, We Will Remember This will be launching on August 17th, 2023, at The Theatre Centre. As Jeyasundaram moves onto other professional opportunities, the commitment to archiving moments of diasporic dance and art remains as an integral part of her legacy with Nova Dance.