Celebrating women as an external manifestation of Shakti

Sohini Roychowdhury weaponises her art through the prism of Shakti to help eradicate gender-inequalities

2020, the year where humankind’s catastrophic suffering at the hands of an unknown and almost other-worldly scourge of near-mythical proportions drove even the occasionally devout to fervently seek divine intervention and relief, the invocation of Hinduism’s divine cosmic force – Shakti – in her numerous forms and shapes seemed inevitable.

Sohini Roychowdhury and her ‘Sohinimoksha World Dance Troupe’ have been celebrating the cult and the ethos of Shakti for the last several years through her path-breaking multinational and multi-disciplinary dance operas and solo acts across the world’s most iconic venues.

Sohini, an Indian dancer, choreographer, visionary, philosopher and professor of ‘Natyashastra’, is the founder of ‘Sohinimoksha World Dance and Communications’ and ‘Sohinimoksha Artes de La India’ in Madrid, Kolkata and Berlin. A premier ambassador of Indian culture for the last several years, Sohini´s performances in India and across the globe have been garnering a tumultuous audience appreciation and rave critical reviews everywhere.

Her dedication and special talent as an exponent of Bharatanatyam, her unique choreography and stagecraft, her ability to adapt and fuse the best that the world of international dance and music has to offer have all combined to create the unique world of ‘Sohinimoksha’.

Expanding upon the root concept of Shakti as the universal and eternal supreme feminine, Sohini’s on-stage interpretations have represented her not only as the traditional Hindu avatars of the divine deliverers Durga and Kali but also as universal symbols of the girl child and as totems of female emancipation and power.

Sohini sees the ‘divine feminine’ in all women and everywhere. Her steadfast belief in the role of women as mothers, sustainers, protectors and needbased destroyers plays out in her iconic performances as a solo artist representing Durga and Kali as well as in her dance opera productions - storytelling the fables of the Mother Goddess through Indian and global dance forms and music and filling world stages with as many as 15 dancers from India, Spain, the USA, Bulgaria, France and Iraq – all simultaneously swaying in fervent unison in celebration of woman power, of the Mother Goddess, of the girl child and the eternal and the universal power of Shakti.

The concept of Shakti was largely unknown to Western audiences and Sohini can rightly claim substantial credit for introducing this vital cosmic force to the occidental stage through her numerous solo and group-dance interpretations. Tracing the roots of Shakti to the Mother Goddesses of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, connecting the theological and mythical dots between them and the Indian pantheon and parables, to the influence of Shakti in the role and representation of women in modern times has been Sohini’s unique forte as a performer. This defining theme also finds acute and astute reflection in the 2020 ‘Roli Books’ coffee-table book ‘Dancing with the Gods’, which celebrates Sohini’s journey as a dancer, communicator and connector of civilisations through her stagecraft and worldview.

Sohini and Sohinimoksha’s various interpretations of Shakti, in the forms of Durga and Kali, have embellished stages across the globe notably at the ‘Bloomsbury Festival’, London; ‘SOAS’ the Uni- versity of London; Anthropological Museum of Madrid; National Geographic Stage, Madrid; ‘Press Gala’ for Real Madrid and Barcelona football clubs, Madrid; Los Andes University, Bogota, Colombia and many more.

Celebrating the feminine gender as an eternal manifestation of Shakti, Sohini has extended her communique on gender empowerment off-stage through her motivational talks and lectures and in her role as a visiting professor at many premier Universities and institutes in Europe, the Americas and India. A fervent believer in universal humanism and empathy, Sohini frequently weaponises her art and her worldview through the prism of Shakti to help eradicate the many ills and gender-inequalities that plague our society.

Sohini sees the early empowerment of women as an essential tenet of the concept of Shakti and to that end, dedicates significant blocks of her schedule to classes on Bharatanatyam, training marginalised girls at the homes run by NGOs ‘Little Big Help’ and ‘Apne Aap’ in Kolkata. She believes that many of these children have the requisite talent and drive to be amongst the next generation of professional classical dancers of India.

Sohini’s ongoing crusade has been recognised and rewarded in multiple countries and she counts amongst her cherished awards the 2013 ‘Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman’ at the House of Lords, British Parliament, London; the 2015 Priyadarshini Award in New Delhi; the 2019 ‘Exceptional Women of Excellence Award by Women Economic Forum in New Delhi and the 2019 ‘Governor’s Commendation’ for ‘Distinguished World Artiste’ by the Governor of Namur Province, Belgium.

As pestilence-scarred 2020 limped to an end, Sohini was buoyed by the hope and the promise of new beginnings, of a cleansed earth reawakening to a better tomorrow, where the girl child blossoms into the woman of tomorrow full of strength, purpose, energy and the power of Shakti.

Sohini’s 2021 productions will celebrate these renewed beginnings, delving once again into the treasure troves of the sagas of Shakti as universal energy forces, that is, healing, restoring, reviving and rewarding.