Swaroopa Pramila Unni is a classical dance practitioner hailing from Dunedin. Photo: Chris Sullivan
Two artists of Indian descent are set to captivate audiences at the New Zealand Festival of Solo Performance in Wellington.
Swaroopa Prameela Unni, a classical dance practitioner from Dunedin, and Sameera Zehra, a versatile storyteller, are gearing up for the TAHI Festival in the capital next week.
Unni was born in Calicut, India, beginning her dance journey at the tender age of 4.
"My parents introduced me to dance and music from a young age," Unni says. "I had my arangetram (debut performance) at the age of 9."
Today, Unni is an accomplished practitioner of Bharatnatyam and Mohiniyattam, in addition to being a dedicated dance educator.
Bharatanatyam and Mohiniyattam are classical dance forms with roots that trace back thousands of years to southern India.
Unni expresses a deep affection for being on the stage.
"You're telling a story and slowly becoming those characters in that story, and I love that process," she says.
Prior to her dance career, Unni worked as a journalist in India but bid adieu to the media industry in 2009 to pursue her passion for dancing.
"Dance has always been a part of me," she says. "It never left."
She moved to New Zealand in 2010 after marrying her partner, who was a student at the University of Otago.
"When I moved (to Dunedin), there were only a few ethnic communities here, especially South Asian communities," she says, reflecting on her early days in New Zealand.
Unni faced the challenge of New Zealand's lack of knowledge about classical Indian dances and the limited South Asian presence in Dunedin.
"All they knew about dancing from India was Bollywood dance," she says.
Unni had to convince Dunedin that other dance forms existed in India.
She took it upon herself to introduce different Indian dance styles to the community through various events and by teaching in schools. She began teaching Bollywood choreography and gradually incorporated Bharatnatyam elements in classes to raise awareness.
Her efforts paid off when she performed to a packed audience at the 2012 and 2016 Fringe Festivals in Dunedin.
In addition to her performances, she founded the Natyaloka School of Indian Dance in Dunedin at the end of 2011. Some of her solo performances include Aananda - Dance of Joy, Sringaram - Dance of Love and Ātete | Resistance | ചെറുത്തുനില്പ്.
She is set to perform Ātete | Resistance | ചെറുത്തുനില്പ് at the upcoming TAHI Festival, attempting to explore the ways a woman's body is used as a site for negotiating power within a patriarchal culture - all through the medium of Mohiniyattam.
She will combine spoken word, dance and digital media to highlight the challenges a newly married Indian woman can face as part of a patriarchal family structure in Aotearoa.
Sameena Zehra is an award winning storyteller, comedian, writer, director and political satirist. Photo: RocT Photography
Zehra, originally born in Kashmir but raised in the UK from infancy, is a multifaceted artist who describes herself as a storyteller.
She is known for her show Tea with Terrorists, a storytelling performance that sheds light on her unique experiences in Kashmir.
"It's essentially a storytelling show about how I ended up having tea with some terrorists in Kashmir - as you do," she says.
Tea with Terrorists was first performed as a standup comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival more than 10 years ago.
"It has morphed and changed and eventually ended up being a theatre show," she says.
Zehra draws inspiration from her surroundings and life experiences for her creative work.
"What I create is an amalgamation of various elements from my life," she says. "I've always picked stories or found things that interest me and shared those stories, so they are influenced by all aspects of who I am."
Zehra first visited New Zealand in 2016 and quickly fell in love with Wellington. She always yearned to return for longer stays. Now, she and her husband proudly hold NZ resident class visas.
"Wellington is a very special city," she says. "The abundance of art and creativity in a city of this size, along with the extraordinarily high standard of work produced here, is truly remarkable."
Ātete | Resistance | ചെറുത്തുനില്പ് and Tea with Terrorists will be performed at the BATS Theatre in Wellington as part of the TAHI Festival.