Wolverhampton based Jaivant Patel Company presents its latest dance production at two Midlands venues next month. ASTITVA reflects the experiences of British Indian gay men through contemporary dance storytelling, diving into the themes of seeking, desire, acceptance and love.

What’s On spoke to Jaivant Patel, the company’s artistic & creative director, to find out more...

West Midlands based Jaivant Patel Company is presenting a brand-new dance production this month. The company’s latest offering explores the lived experiences of British Indian gay men, and is choreographed by Jaivant himself.

“I’m Wolverhampton born and bred,” says Jaivant. “I then went and trained at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, an institution which, at that time, was particularly known for its development of dancers from the diverse community - and in particular male dancers. I then came back into the city, and I established my company here. That’s what I’ve been doing for nearly 20 years now!”
ASTITVA, the company’s new production, is structured into four parts: seeking, desire, acceptance and love.

“Those different sections talk about different things. ‘Seeking’ identity, and what ‘desire’ looks like once you realise who you are. ‘Acceptance’ is about finding family when you might not necessarily have traditional family, and ‘love’ is an unapologetic love duet between two men. The work is broken up with solos that break the fourth wall, talking about life experiences. And from a dance perspective, we’re innovative and we’re kind of groundbreaking - this work has not been done before within South Asian contexts.”

Even the format and structure of the piece is designed to reflect “the non-linear life timeline for gay men”, as Jaivant describes it.

“I realise I might be generalising here - heterosexual people go to school, possibly find a girlfriend or boyfriend, live together, have an education, get married, 2.4 children, grandchildren, retirement.... I would say for the gay man’s timeline or the queer timeline, coming out and finding love can be at different stages, coming to terms with who you are as a person is very different... Family isn’t always a traditional family.”

As the project has come to fruition, the piece has developed into an hour-long work, inspired by the experiences of Jaivant and his collaborators.

“The choreography and the direction by me has been influenced by conversations, stories, lived experiences as a British Indian gay man - which includes the cast as well. So it’s all been built through conversations we’ve had. It’s all been built through the similarities within lived experiences, the differences, or the different perspectives. That all comes together to build a piece of work that is open enough for translation, but specific enough for subject matter.”

And Jaivant explains that one section of the piece is particularly important to him.

“The one thing that I knew that I definitely wanted out of this piece was a love duet. I knew that I wanted that, because I’d never seen a love duet between two brown Indian men at that time. I wanted it to reflect representation, but I also wanted it to reflect a sense of hope. One thing that I’ve disbanded from in the work is this sense of victimisation from the queer community - this work is about positivity, about bold human stories, celebrating them joyfully. Most queer stories represented are focused around victimisation - or that’s what I’m seeing - and I wanted to stay away from that, because we are not victims.”

The production also draws on the diverse dance styles that have informed Jaivant’s practice over the years.

“Many people would assume, having looked at the name of our company and from our history of working within the classical kathak genre, that this is a classical piece. It’s not. It’s a piece going back to my contemporary dance roots.

“I’ve had the pleasure and a great fortune of training under many different styles of dance, all of which have influenced how I work within performance spaces and creative spaces today. I’ve had training or experience of work within contemporary dance forms, within ballet, within a particular form of kathak. And I’ve married all of that together to create a piece which is not about fusing dance languages, its about going down to the bare bones of storytelling.”

In recent years, Jaivant Patel Company has received plenty of critical acclaim, and ASTITVA has already been making waves as a piece of dance which spans genre expectations.

“In 2024, Jaivant Patel Company won the Eastern Eye Award for Dance. That was for a piece of work called Waltzing The Blue Gods, which was around my queer experience as a man of faith, and what that meant within my relationship to the Hindu deities, Shiva and Krishna.

“That raised a lot more awareness around the work we do within the sector, because I think that’s the first time a queer piece of dance has won the award… That then led on to other things and other collaborations, which have meant Jaivant Patel Company has gone to Parliament - we recently opened the launch of South Asian Heritage Month at Parliament, by invitation of the Speaker. The exposure for the company has been getting bigger and bigger.”

In ASTITVA, Jaivant has stepped away from dancing in the spotlight - but feels that the piece is certainly still a representation of his creative practice.

“I don’t think that I will forever be off the stage, but it’s just an understanding of my growth as a maker and a choreographer.”

And when it comes to dancing, Jaivant can definitely be tempted back onto his feet if the mood is right...

“My music sensibilities have changed so much over the past couple of years. It’s strange... I very rarely now dance on the dancefloor. I kind of sit down at my table, enjoying my glass of wine, bobbing along to the beats and having a conversation. I think I’ve entered my ‘chill’ era! But give me an old-school R&B tune, or an old-school blues tune, and I’m like, yeah, perfect! And if Kylie Minogue or Queen is playing, then I’ll definitely be on the dancefloor.”

ASTITVA shows at Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre on Thursday 6 November, and at Birmingham Repertory Theatre on Friday 21 & Saturday 22 November

By Jessica Clixby