Two dancers walk on to the screen and wait for you to swipe a pattern. Try a straight line, horizontal, clockwise and counter-clockwise circles, or 14 other options listed on the page. The pair perform distinct moves for each pattern, and after 10, you have the option to add a soundtrack. Congratulations, you’ve just put together a contemporary dance show, not unlike award-winning choreographer-director Wayne McGregor. All that’s left is to share it on social media.
The latest digital property by the British Council, Mix the Body, was launched earlier this week as part of the UK India Year of Culture. In a chat with Weekend, Alan Gemmell, Director-India, talks about the making of the project and how BC is adapting to reach millennials while retaining its core values.
How did Mix the Body materialise?
We wanted to work with McGregor. We approached him and said, “We would love you to come to India, but we’re rather greedy people, so we don’t just want you to give a performance.” We wanted to open up the unique language of dance and the way it is created to a greater audience online. We already have two similar projects — Mix the City and Mix the Play — which have already received over 1.5 million visitors from 200 countries, and now, we wanted to tell an Indian story with dance.
McGregor collaborated with dancers from the Bengaluru-based Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts. In June, two dancers from each company got together in London and recorded 18 dance moves. When you go on the site, you can experience a little bit of what it’s like to be a choreographer. The technology was handled by British startup Flying Object, who designed the Mix series online. The idea was to democratise the art form. We want a great user experience while celebrating diversity and fostering curiosity and introspection; and we want it to be fun. That’s the secret sauce.
Why are such artistic collaborations important to the British Council?
We have a big birthday in India next year, we’re turning 70. And the heart of the mission has been sharing culture, the English language and access to education, as a tool to help improve people’s lives or create opportunities. We believe in the particular power of culture to excite and inspire people to look at issues differently or view themselves and the world differently.
How do you approach the digitisation of arts and education?
We want to connect with young people where they are, which is on their mobiles. So we’re creating experiences for these devices. BC is learning from our current online initiatives to provide for the needs and ambitions of young people who are on board. This is why we’ve launched an online teaching product called MyEnglish, and an online library project.
We’ve trained over a million teachers in government schools and hope to reach a million more in the next five years. But for that, we have to work differently. Right now, we have a grid of teachers connected on WhatsApp, where they share teaching techniques and lesson plans. We’re also looking at getting mobile partners on board.
What are some of the collaborations in the coming months?
We want to see how we can help people tell their stories of how their connect with the British Council has helped them over the past 70 years.
In Mix the City, we have 12 musicians who live and work in the city playing at 12 iconic locations. So far, we have Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, with Chennai to be launched in January 2018. In November, we have a lovely collaboration with Anoushka Shankar: the British Film Institute’s National Archive has restored the Indian/ British/ German co-production Shiraz . It will feature a live background score by the Grammy-nominated sitar player, and will be performed in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. Wayne McGregor and company will also bring a production called FAR on a tour of four cities from November 30 to December 14.
How do you balance holding on to what BC stands for and staying relevant to millennials?
Increasingly, our work is about enhancing opportunities for young people in India. It’s what we have been doing for 70 years. Now we’re tweaking the recipe to be even more relevant today, like taking our English language teaching from a physical place to online, taking culture from just a theatre to your mobile. This is our response to the changing tastes and preferences. We’re excited about it. There are many competing demands on their time, and we hope that as we develop more digital products, we can respond better to their ambitions and needs and continue to be relevant and connected to people in India.
