Pick up some Good Vibrations this half-term
A South Asian arts festival that was due to be staged in Birmingham this month is now free for all online. ROZ LAWS discovers what its founder has in store
AFREE online arts festival is on the way to brighten our grey lockdown lives, offering a glimpse of vibrant South Asian cultures. “We want to bring colour and energy into people’s homes,” says Sonia Sabri, the founder of Lok Virsa: Good Vibrations, a week of free, high-class music and dance performances and classes and interactive craft workshops.
Held over half term to give families a welcome break from home schooling, Lok Virsa means ‘‘heritage of the people’’. Now in its seventh year, it was first experienced by 8,000 people at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
It has since been held a dozen times around the country, from Luton and Swindon to Bradford and Warwick Arts Centre, as well as the Library of Birmingham.
In 2019 a colourful procession through Birmingham’s streets brought the traffic to a halt, before 6,000 people visited Birmingham Hippodrome – 80 per cent for the first time – to watch live music and dance performances and take part in craft sessions.
Planned festivals in Ipswich and Manchester had to be cancelled last year due to Covid, while Lok Virsa was due to take place at the Hippodrome again this year. That’s been pushed back to 2022, but for now it’s going online.
From Monday, February 15, there will be a week of free events for all ages and backgrounds.
Everyone can sign up for Zoom classes, to be taken through dance steps in their own homes by international artists. You could join in bhangra dance with Kinga Malec, silk scarf dance from Afghanistan or find someone teaching you from Nepal or Sri Lanka.
Renowned musicians lined up include Bahram Jamali from Iran, Kamal Sabri from India and Shafi Mondal from Bangladesh.
The craft activities are being adapted to use objects found around the home. Weaver Nilupa Yasmin normally uses bamboo but will demonstrate how to weave materials like bin liners cut into strips.
Rangoli creates mosaic patterns on the floor using coloured rice, lentils, leaves and petals, while the henna hand tattoos of mehndi will now involve painting patterns on cakes. Lok Virsa: Good Vibrations is free to take part for everyone, thanks to an Arts Council grant. Sonia was born in Wolverhampton and brought up in Birmingham, where she set up her dance company in 2002 with her husband, celebrated tabla drummer Sarvar Sabri. She says: “Everyone is very welcome to join in with Lok Virsa. We want to engage with all communities and bring people together to celebrate what we all love. Some people may have no knowledge of the culture of the Indian sub-continent. Others may be born into that family set-up but don’t know much about their heritage. It doesn’t matter. “At Sonia Sabri Company, we very quickly moved our programme of kathak dance and table classes online and realised how amazing Zoom can be. While we can’t meet in person for Lok Virsa: Good Vibrations, technology means we can connect people from all over the world. “We’ve held a couple of small festivals online, which went down very well. For parents its quite a task to keep children entertained and they need some respite. Lok Virsa has come at an ideal time at half term.
“It will also take place on Facebook Live and Instagram Live, and will open with a dance workshop on the Birmingham Hippodrome Facebook page to give it as wide a reach as possible.”
Sonia Sabri Company is an associate of the Hippodrome and Sonia says: “The Hippodrome has been so valuable to our work, giving
We want to engage with all communities and bring people together to celebrate what we all love
Sonia Sabri
us confidence, commissioning our projects and helping collaborations. We were proud to perform at the theatre’s 120th anniversary gala.” Chris Sudworth, the Hippodrome’s director of artistic programme, says: “Birmingham is the biggest dance city outside London and we support several associate companies to reach new audiences. We have worked with Sonia since 2018, supporting her to create and nationally tour her family production Same Same… But Different and to host a fantastic Lok Virsa festival in 2019.
“We’re delighted to partner with Sonia to adapt the festival for online audiences.”
Sonia will be performing her own speciality of kathak dance during the festival, which she first started learning at the age of eight.
“My dad really wanted me to be a Bollywood star!” she laughs. “I took classes at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, but I was really shy and it felt like torture. I didn’t like my jazz and modern dance classes, but I also learned kathak at the MAC and fell in love with that.
“It’s like ballet, in that you have to be very disciplined and train every day. Growing up, I’d work intensively with my teacher and spend my holidays at her house.
“But in style, kathak is very similar to flamenco – in fact, it inspired the Spanish dancers. It’s very percussive, with lots of hand gestures, spins and work with skirts. It tells stories without words.
“It’s traditional but I like to give it a fresh edge by collaborating with other styles. I’ve worked with hip hop artists like Jonzi D to find common ground and start conversations. For example, street artists spin on their heads while we can spin very fast on our heel.
“Kathak is food for the soul, and so is Lok Virsa. It doesn’t matter if you have two left feet, just have a go and join in, to escape for a while.”
For more information on how to take part in Lok Virsa: Good Vibrations, go the Sonia Sabri Company website at www.ssco. org.uk or their social media platforms.