The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Magnify – get to know Vishnu from Agal Dance Company
In our final Magnify artist introduction, Vishnu Arunasalam, Director of Agal Dance Company, shares a life packed with dance, work and pandemics. Managing a busy company of talented health professionals and accomplished performers has it challenges like being restricted to weekend and online rehearsals. In Magnify, the company explore their first ever socially engaged choreographic process, drawing from diasporic narratives to reinterpret contemporary expressions of classical Indian dance.
Vishnu shares his thoughts on what life in lockdown, making dance and the balance of a working and creative life.
Stay tuned for more announcements of films, images, illustrations, podcasts and music to come before the end of the year from the six incredible artists in Magnify.
How has the lockdown impacted your creative process?
Lockdown and Covid has definitely forced us to think outside of the box in our approach to creating new work. We are lucky that practice can continue through digital platforms. Some of us in Agal because of our roles as essential workers meant that the development of this work and its schedule had to be altered to accommodate our work duties, but because the passion and drive to create has never been stronger than before, we are very eager to develop this new work for our community and understand that our art work will be viewed as important for the wellbeing of our community.
What are your thoughts and how do you feel about participating in Magnify as an emerging artist?
As an emerging dance company based in Western Sydney we are so thrilled to be given the opportunity to develop new work for our community. Magnify is truly unique for its diverse capture of artists from various spheres. We hope that the work we make forms the foundation which Agal builds on to develop a larger body of work.
What can people look forward to about your artwork in Magnify?
The work hopes to open dialogues of community, and bring communities together with vibrance of dance and film.
