The great British pilgrimage each summer is to the North. 2008 saw a first at the Edinburgh Fringe: the INVASIAN Festival sponsored predominantly by Incredible India, and produced by Club West. It was hosted in the Royal College of Surgeons’ Quincentenary Hall. Through the daily downpour, families, artists, companies, media, got into stampede mode for feasting their soul in the trough of culture. Edinburgh is home of the world’s recognizably trail blazing, star making, profit shattering, destination that programmes  art  today that becomes the thought for tomorrow. The hype surrounding the festivals – Fringe, International, Comedy, Literature, Theatre, Dance, Jazz – makes a thriving industry for investors sponsoring the events, and for hotels, real estate rentals, theatres, employment for a wide range of production staff at the venues apart from the companies that bring their own.

In a time when the economic current is looking east to India it seemed a significant gateway. The INVASIAN Festival was a programme of Asian performing arts ranging from Bollywood to Classical Bharatnatyam as direct influences from the subcontinent, and voices of the diaspora in the Asian theatre in England. Apart from this there were popular and serious representations of work from Korea and Hong Kong and Israel as well.
  Taking work to the Edinburgh Festivals is a high risk venture. The saying on the street goes: “You never go to make money at Edinburgh, only a reputation and it best be a good one”. Out of the 2000 shows that play simultaneously, one is lucky to get an audience at all! In a climate when arts funding is shrinking for subsidized theatre companies, this was a good idea as a platform for Asian work as an umbrella, put together somewhat indiscriminately, for diverse purposes, that had an interesting effect. Firstly, the shuffling of commercial programmes like Taekwando placed at prime daytime slots, brought in family audiences with a sense of curiosity – not necessarily culture. But what was good was that it made the general public enter a venue that advertised a culturally specific programme, which they might otherwise have passed by.

Secondly, the artists enlisted from diverse environments stretched the perception of Asianesses.  This was evident from performers of diverse ethnicities displaying a professional commitment to Asian art forms integrated with British issues and concerns.

A vibrant example of this was Danceihayam www. danceihayam. org, a Bharata natyam dance company based in Edinburgh. Priya Shri Kumar as artistic director, chief choreographer & dancer with her multiracial team of dancers from Israel, Ireland, Malaysia, and Scotland created VISMAYAHA combining Krishna, Shiva and Devi narratives. They were spectacular in their combination of complex footwork, rhythms, including an exploration of Bharata Natyam  with music from the Orkney-based Wrigley sisters and a finale to Celtic music. It was heartening to see the old stories, in traditional dance forms sending waves of excitement to new audiences. The discipline of Priya and her dancers signalled that true performance is about an immersion in the poetry of the moment; dance is a vehicle for that.

From the south, or London, AKADEMI www.akademi.co. uk came DAREDEVAS. A powerful contemporisation of kathak with a multiracial cast of dancers. While these two organisations embedded the classical origins with a flair for integrating cross-cultural artists and styles, there were companies embarking on personal stories through traditional dance.
Then comes the antithesis to dance : Theatre. Sayan Kent’s new work ANOTHER PARADISE, directed by Janet Steel of KALI Theatre Company was a refreshing take on the ID card issue as a government intervention in the wake of identity fraud, citizenship, computer misreadings resulting in human mishaps, hackers, and the price of freedom. Sakuntala Ramanee’s performance was well poised between the surreal world of the play and the imminent reality of the chaos should this happen. The serious political nature of the work was well diffused by humour. It will be out on tour in April 2009.

RIFCO Theatre company ( www.rifcoarts. com) more popularly known for Bollywood inspired musical theatre brought out a poignant work: IT AIN’T ALL BOLLYWOOD. This work featured a young Asian woman who locks herself into a panacea that Bollywood brings each time she has to encounter reality. And this is probably true of a lot of young Asian women whose dreams, and wedding parties, are fantasies of Bollywood, than facing cold reality. This two-hander paced itself with a hard working cast shaping a moving story.

Straddling across the worlds of dance and theatre with its use of movement, music and improvised Storytelling was Vayu Naidu Company’s (VNC) www.vayunaiducompany.org.uk re-telling of RAMAYANA with Ansuman Biswas on the Swiss Hang ; a musical instrument that combines melodic and percussive sounds. VNC’s new work BHAKTI & THE BLUES was with jazz singer Cleveland Watkiss. The former is the Hindu epic, the selection of stories are derived from unfamiliar folk, and tribal origins rendered in English. BHAKTI & THE BLUES is an intercultural meeting of the meaning of encountering the infinity of Love across times of political oppression and human hardship. VNC’s poems, and selection of Devi and Afro-American  stories were interwoven with Cleveland’s vocal suite  that range from a trumpet to a djambe drum; it was where Indian storytelling met transatlantic Jazz and was ‘a serious side to the Fringe’
(Glasgow Herald).

The work that touched and combined technology with live performance as an installation theatre was ID by Hu NuNunMul enabling the audience to experience the alienation that every visitor and immigrant must experience when entering a country and not being fluent in the language. It was shortlisted for the Total Theatre awards.
The Chinese Elvis  www.ChineseElvis.com was another phenomenon that deserves mention. Paul Huw is no ordinary Elvis sing alike. There is definitive political creed with his powerpoint on the Diverse Elvis Spectrum done with the required irony, about identity. He states that the Chinese have not been embraced within the genre of Asian in England, as they are the singular minority emerging from Asia that does not play cricket. Through the comedy, some questions of what it means to be Asian are raised and looking at differences and similarities – particularly in the fascination with Elvis.
The Tourist Board of India – Incredible India! - sponsored this platform that gave the first visibility of Asian work at the Edinburgh Fringe. The Indian High Commissioner’s visit and affirmation gave it the stamp of approval for the future.