Shobana Jeyasingh CBE
Shobana Jeyasingh was born in Chennai, India. She has lived in Sri Lanka and Malaysia and trained in Bharata Natyam (the classical dance of Tamil Nadu). She read English Literature, specialising in Shakespeare, at the University of Sussex.
In 1989 she founded Shobana Jeyasingh Dance and has created over 60 critically acclaimed works for stage, screen and outdoor and indoor sites, ranging from Palladian monasteries in Venice to contemporary fountains in London.
Her work has toured extensively in the UK, Europe, USA, Turkey, India, China, Singapore and Hong Kong. Notable commissions include work for Rambert, Ballet Black, Company Wayne McGregor, the Venice Biennale, Beijing Modern Dance Academy, Contemporary City Dance Company Hong Kong, and Opéra national du Rhin in France.
Shobana was a judge for BBC Young Dancer in both 2017 and 2019, and has served on the panels of the Arts Council of England, Greater London Arts, London Contemporary Dance Trust and The Royal Opera House. A number of her works form part of the National Curriculum for Dance in the UK.
Her many awards include a Nesta Dream Fellowship to visit China and Japan and experience their contemporary dance cultures, honorary doctorates from the universities of Leicester and Chichester, and Asian Woman of Achievement in Art and Culture 2008. In 2020, she was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).