For Weaving Paths (through time), the Sonia Sabri Company was resident at Bantock House for three-weeks, using the house and gardens as inspiration to create short new works. The house has Edwardian interiors and furnishings, which the company (made up of professional dancers and musicians) responded to through various movement and sound, creating original dance and music.听
 | | Through time: Dance in motion |
Throughout this process local community groups collaborated with the professional artists to create an innovative and evocative piece. A rare kind of experience The project ran over three weeks in May 2007. At the end of each week a new piece was performed along with the work created in the previous weeks. The final day of the residency saw works in four spaces: the Drawing Room, Arts and Crafts Room and Staircase, Billiard Room and Dutch Garden.
 | | Dancing in Bantock House |
A rare kind of experience鈥 The Drawing Room: a lone woman gazes out of the window, reflecting on a love that once was. She rearranges herself only to return to where she started. A frustrated couple turn away from one another in the afternoon sunshine 鈥 each unable to look the other in the eye. Two maidens dance a joyous step to the melodic sounds of the tabla and santoor (hammer and dulcimer). Mixing the alternative with the contemporary Then something quite magical happens鈥 slowly, one by one, some of the audience become part of the performance: a middle-aged woman struts to the front and leans on the mantle-piece holding a pipe just like a gentleman might have done; a strapping young lad sidles over to an armchair, sits, and begins to read the century-old newspaper; a rickety old man and a small Indian girl in plaits begin a game of cards at the table and a couple play marbles on the rug.
 | | Window to a new experience |
What we are left with is an alternative and contemporary tableau of gentry life. Journey around Bantock House A lecturer and students from the University of Wolverhampton with skills in contact improvisation created work in The Arts and Crafts Room. The piece starts with the lightness of childhood play and builds to a turbulent transition into adulthood. The dancers are accompanied by frenetic strings and a deep resonating voice. Watching the performance, a four-year old boy stood at the bottom of the stairs eyes transfixed on the performers, trying to make sense of the trouble unfolding before him. The audience are then taken upstairs to the newly refurbished Billiard Room where power, competition and masculinity are portrayed through the rhythm of clattering billiard balls and stamping feet. "The House will never be the same again" We are finally led outside to the Dutch Garden where Shikidim (a local belly-dancing troupe) begin a dance, accompanied by Gulfam Sabri and two female singers singing a classical Turkish song.
 | | Dancing in Bantock House |
Sonia Sabri then dances a traditional Kathak solo inspired by the formality, geometry and splendour of the garden, incorporating breathtakingly fast spins and her signature grace. The garden piece culminates with Sonia and the dancers, joined by the young Kathakaars (trainee Kathak dancers) who are dressed in beautiful embroidered and opulent costumes and Shikidim. Together they all animate the space through leaps and twirls. Feast for the eyes and ears The company inhabit the space and create a new dialogue with the house itself. By juxtaposing contrasting dance and music elements, emotive new narratives are produced in each of the rooms. As well as South Asian music there are strings, voice, saxophone, ghatam (clay pot) and oud (Middle-eastern lute). Each location offers a unique experience and opportunity for engagement with the audience.
 | | The Kathakaar workshop for all ages |
It is a real feast for the eyes and ears - a fusion of eastern and western traditions. 鈥淭he House will never be the same again,鈥 says Helen Steatham, The Curator Manager at Bantock House and Park. Black Country Touring Weaving Paths (through time) forms part of Black Country Touring鈥檚 reSonAte programme: for developing South Asian contacts, promoters, projects and audiences. Sanjit Basra is reSonAte Administrator for Black Country Touring. More information at Black Country Touring鈥檚 website: www.bctouring.co.uk Photos on this page by Anand Chhabra. | 
