Aakash Odedra Company Present Samsara

Artists

Aakash Odedra is a dancer, choreographer and teacher. Born in Birmingham, UK and trained in the classical Indian dance styles of Kathak (Nilima Devi, Leicester and Asha Joglekar, India) and Bharatanatyam (Chitraleka Bolar, Birmingham and Chhaya Kantaveh, India). Aakash formed Aakash Odedra Company in 2011 as a vehicle for commissioning solos and to develop his own choreographic work. His debut full length solo Rising featured short works created for him by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Akram Khan and Russell Maliphant. As choreographer he was commissioned to create a piece for James Brown: Get on the Good Foot (Apollo Theater, New York) and the Opera God’s Little Soldier (Theater Freiburg), The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations and the closing of the London Cultural Olympiad. Aakash has received numerous awards and bursaries, including a Dora performance award (Canada), Danza&Danza award (Italy), Audience Award Dance Week 2013 (Croatia), Infant Award 2014 (Serbia), Bessie Award (Best Male Performer, 2014) and a Sky Academy Arts Scholarship.

Hu Shenyuan is an independent dancer and choreographer. He graduated from the Dance Academy of Central MinZu University before working in Beijing for LDTX Dance Company from 2012 to 2014. As a dancer, he played Yu Ji in Yang Liping’s dance work Under Siegeto great public acclaim. In 2017, Hu became the first young artist supported by Yang Liping Art Foundation, created his work Rovingand established his studio Hu-Hu Dance. Hu’s choreographic works include Roving, The Moonlight Rainbow, So Close, With, ID, Ego, and Super-Ego and The Flower of Freedom. Several of his creations have been selected for the exhibition unit of the China Youth Dance Talents Training Program. His many awards include Best Performance Award at the 4th Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition; the Silver Award from the 16th Italian Rome International Choreography Competition and the Jury Chairman’s Award at the 15th Seoul International Dance Competition in 2018. 9 Lou Cope is a dance & theatre dramaturg and facilitator who has worked across the UK, Europe and in the Middle East. As well as working with artists, Lou dramaturgs organisations, is Dramaturg in Residence at South East Dance and founder of CoAD - The Centre of Applied Dramaturgy (www.thecoad.org). Recent artistic collaborations include: Aakash Odedra on the Amnesty International Freedom of Speech & ACTA Award-winning #JeSuis; English National Ballet; Birmingham Royal Ballet; Gary Clarke on The Troth– winner of Herald Angel and Lustrum Awards, and COAL - UK Theatre & Critics Choice awards, and the forthcoming Wasteland; Jose Agudo; Stopgap Dance; Rhiannon Faith; & Hagit Yakira. Past collaborations include: Phoenix Dance Theatre; Scottish Dance Theatre; les ballets c de la b; Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet on the double Olivier Award winning Babel (words) designed by Antony Gormley; Cherkaoui and Gormley's Sutra. Lou is also a published writer, a workshop leader, and a podcast host.

Nicki Wells is a singer-songwriter-composer-producer; she recently gained a first class honours degree in music, has been working on her solo debut album as well as multiple collaborations with various artists and producers including the acclaimed Nitin Sawhney. She has already been featured on his work from album recordings to performances in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Opera House and Sadlers Wells and is featured on the recent BBC hit series the Human Planet. In January of 2011, Nicki composed the score for Tanika Gupta’s theatrical adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘Great Expectations’, receiving critical acclaim as it toured theaters and playhouses throughout the country. Having already performed in countries as a singer to sell out audiences in regions as diverse as Australia, the Middle East, the Far East & Europe, she has astounded audiences all over the world with her incomparable ability to traverse the gaps between old and new, east and west and contemporary chic and classicism.

Beibei Wang is a genre-defying international virtuoso percussionist educated in both China and UK. Beibei has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the classical music world, receiving international praise for her performances. She was listed in the top 50 Chinese musicians in the Sound of East project by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, as well as endorsed by the Arts Council, England receiving an Exceptional Talent visa from the British Government. Following a successful world tour, Beibei now leads a traditional Chinese percussion programme to promote and preserve traditional Chinese percussion at SOAS University of London. She has successfully toured internationally to a number of music festivals and collaborated with leading orchestras, conductors and composers. Most recently, she toured China as a soloist with BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Barry Wordsworth.

Michael Ormiston is an award winning Mongolian Khöömii (Overtone) singer, a multiinstrumentalist, composer, inspirational teacher, workshop leader and therapeutic sound practitioner. He studied Khöömii in Mongolia with herdsman and the expert singer Tserendavaa. He’s also studied with leading singers, Tsengedorj, Ganbold, Gereltsolt and Tsogtbaatar. Michael teaches Khöömii on the SOAS world music summer school as well as individually teaching ethnomusicology students at SOAS, Goldsmith College, University of London and Ateliers d’ethnomusicologie, Geneva. Working in conjunction with SOAS and the Embassy of Mongolia, Michael has organised, lectured and performed at the inaugural European Mongolian Khöömii Festival in London. He wrote, researched and presented two radio shows for the BBC about traditional Mongolian and Siberian music. Michael’s Overtones, instruments & compositions have featured in film, television programmes, theatre and dance productions, including The Golden Compass, Planet Earth, The Crucible (Old Vic), and Balled Frankfurt.

Tina Tzoka is a set designer trained in architecture and philosophy. In 2007 she co organised the 27th EASA meeting for 450 European architecture students under the theme City Index, in Elefsina Greece. Since then has been a member of the City Index Lab working on the fields of architecture, city and new technologies, organizing numerous exhibitions, lectures and workshops. She began her career in theatre in 2008 as Eleni's Manolopoulou Assistant and since 10 then, she has been a practicing set and costume designer in Athens, working for the National Theatre of Greece, the Festival of Epidavros, the National Opera in Greece, the Act Theatre Company, the Acropol Theatre, the Onassis Cultural Centre and other theatrical stages in Greece.

Dr Yaron Abulafia is an award-winning performance designer, he has designed over 200 performances, installations, concerts and TV shows internationally. His work has graced the stages of numerous large scale opera and theatre houses throughout the world, including the Deutsche Oper and Komische Oper in Berlin, Sadler’s Wells and Royal Opera House (London), Grand Theatre Luxembourg, Poly Theatre Beijing and Shanghai International Dance Centre, Nederlands Dans Theater, English National Ballet, Rambert Dance Company and Compañía Nacioanl de Danza in Spain. Yaron holds a PhD, a Master’s degree in Scenography, and a B.A. in theatre studies. He is a published author and serves as PQ Ambassador and Jury Member of The 2019 Prague Quadrennial for Performance Design and Space. KH Lee works as a freelance designer. He travels between Hong Kong and Shanghai for various styling, fashion design and costume design projects. He joined the fashion design industry after graduation from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1999. He worked as a fashion designer, in product development, and in pattern design and training. His specialisations include fashion design, fashion technology, product development and material studies. He joined two institutes for vocational training over 10 years and pursued a Master in Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, after which he joined the Technological and Higher Education Institute of Hong Kong (THEi) as a Teaching Fellow.