Ashley Lobo Spreads His Dancing Legs To Germany!

Prominent choreographer & dance visionary Ashley Lobo, who has choreographed for a number of films and the Artistic Director of Navdhara India Dance Theatre (NIDT), is all set to choreograph a full-length International contemporary dance production for a globally renowned Ballet company for the first time in Chemnitz, Germany. The choreographer has been invited as a guest choreographer at the Die Theater Chemnitz, a full-fledged Ballet company with an illustrious work record to its credit.Talking about Ashley being invited at the Ballet Chemnitz, he says, ''It's a very different assignment for me. I usually work with Indian dancers, but this is a full-blown German ballet company with its own theatre, costume department and the like. Their ethos is very different.''Ashley Lobo bagged the opportunity to head to Germany when a dance researcher from Poland along with her German fiance Thorsten Teubl came to Mumbai and witnessed Ashley's work as he was preparing for his new piece Agni which premiered in December 2016 and also his previous work on Amaara  A Journey Of Love. After they noticed his choreography & his unique technique called the Prana PaintTM Technique, they were blown away. Prana PaintTM Technique is a unique sensitizing approach that explores movement through connectivity, yoga, breath, and touch to help the dancers go deeper within & commit to themselves. So when they dance, they don't dance by thinking about it but by feeling it. Elaborating on the same, Ashley says, ''Prana Paint makes dancers more human, instead of technical machines. I feel it's very important for the audience to feel rather than see my shows. I will introduce the German dancers to Prana Paint; it will help them see my sensibility.''On returning to Poland, Thorsten, a dramaturge spoke to Sabrina Sadowska, the artistic director in Die Theater Chemnitz about Navdhara. When Sabrina who's been the Ballet master there for the last ten years saw what Navdhara does, she was intrigued and got in touch with Ashley's team thus inviting Ashley to be a part and choreograph for their ballet company. Sabrina wanted to challenge her dancers by getting them to do a contemporary dance which is Ashley's forte as well as a little bit of Jazz & Funk which he is familiar with and found a perfect fit in him. She wants him to choreograph her dancers for the full-length dance production of an upcoming musical show to be presented by their group. The best part is with the overall brief & budgets given in terms of set design, costumes and production, Ashley has all the creative freedom & liberty in terms of what direction he wishes to take the production in, the music to be used and the dance forms to be incorporated.Ashley who trained in Australia at the Bodenweiser Dance Centre (under the late Margaret Chapple) and at the much-reputed Sydney Dance Company moved back to India in 1998 and has been working passionately since then to spread the awareness of International dance in India. His passion has always been to promote International dance in India as well as to show the world that India does have the caliber of performing dance forms besides classical forms of dance which is why Navdhara India Dance Theatre was incepted. Ashley aims to drive the message to the world that when people think about contemporary dance forms in India, their thought is not restricted to just Indian classical contemporary dance but are aware of the fact that we also do western contemporary dance. Touring to various countries in the world like China, US, South Africa, Israel among others, Ashley believes that with time people have realized that the dance company is not just associated with the traditional Indian dance forms but also focuses on western dance forms.Ashley feels proud and ecstatic about this opportunity since he feels that post-independence, there has not been any Indian choreographer who has choreographed a western contemporary dance company ever. India is known for its classical dance forms, and it is possibly the first time that it is being feted for its contemporary dance. Ashley asserts, ''To be working with ballet dancers from different parts of the world coming from different cultures is great and will be an enriching experience altogether.'' The premiere is on November 11th, 2017at the Die Theater Chemnitz in Germany with practice sessions beginning from next month.