unconventional means meets urban vani: pics and video
Here are some pics, and a video of the buildup to the concert we held at Southbank Centre, exploring the relationship between Indian vocal rhythms and beatboxing. Photos are by RJ Fernandez and the video is by Gemma Riggs.
Amazing artwork by Illustrator/spy Ellie Meredith
crossed cultures collaborate!
The kathak girls get into the beatboxing
Bellatrix and me with the Urban Vani kathak choir
Isha, 7, is one of my youngest students! She's a wicked beatboxer and stole the show
Gauri Sharma Tripathi with her amazing kathak dancers, they came over from India for the weekend
Gauri made me wear a traditional Indian costume!
Susheela Raman with her band. She has a spellbinding voice
Me and Susheela
Grand finale, take a bow!! what a show
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kathak bbox choir rehearsing
Urban Vani – the Kathak beatbox choir in rehearsal
The Kathak beatbox choir in rehearsal
Combining Indian Kathak vocal rhythms with beatboxing
A few days ago I had my first experimental session with Gauri Sharma Tripathi in preparation for our collaborative concert with Susheela Raman which takes place in a few weeks. It’s the first Unconventional Means show in a while and I’m really excited about this one – it is different, and combines disciplines which are remarkably similar even though they were born in opposite corners of the globe.
Gauri is an exponent of Kathak – a form of classical dance from North India. I first witnessed a Kathak performance when I watched the graduation ceremony of two of Gauri’s students, presenting a piece which had taken them a year to create. The dance focuses on intricate rhythmic footwork with bells around one ankle, and the result is captivating.
Gauri Sharma Tripathi
The dancing is accompanied by the rhythmic vocal syllables known as bols. I first tried to perform these last year in a collaboration with Nitin Sawnhey, and was amazed at the similarities to beatboxing. Just as in beatbox, you use phonetic sounds to create a rhythmic pattern, holding a groove and creating a beat.
So here’s the juicy bit of this collaboration – Gauri has amassed a 35-strong ‘choir’ of her Kathak students, and has spent the last couple of months focusing on the vocal element of their training. They’ve put the bells on their arms and have been working on rhythmic soundscapes. I’m going to meet them next week to hear what they have been working on. The plan is to incorporate this group with some of my beatbox students and create a Kathak beatbox choir, which we are calling ‘Urban Vani’.
In the meantime, Gauri and I have been experimenting with merging the two vocal disciplines. Here is what it sounded like:
Shlomo and Gauri – Kathak beatbox rehearsal (MP3 2.3MB)
This is going to be by far the most developed collaboration in the series so far.. normally we only get a chance to work on things at the last minute. Although Susheela and her band are out of the country at the moment so who knows how ‘organic’ that part of the collaboration will have to be!
I’ll post up more about all this once I’ve met the choir. But right now I’ve got my grin back 
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