Pagrav Dance Company in ROOH: Within Her

Pagrav Dance Company are touring ROOH: Within Her, Urja Desai Thakore’s ambitious work about the heroism of women…

Urja Desai Thakore in her ‘ROOH: Within Her’. © Pari Naderi

Pagrav Dance Company
ROOH: Within Her
★★✰✰✰
London, Sadler’s Wells Lilian Baylis Studio
23 April 2025
www.pagravdance.com
www.sadlerswells.com

Urja Desai Thakore’s ROOH: Within Her is a sincere and heartfelt work about an important subject that has rarely featured in a male-dominated world: the heroism, bravery and good works of women. While it flickers with some good ideas, for the most part it does not currently do full justice to the inspiration. That is obviously a shame, but it feels even greater because Pagrav Dance Company, which Thakore directs, has been on something of a roll with their recently announced National Dance Awards nomination as a Best Independent Company.

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, Pagrav pride themselves on presenting a new kind of kathak dance, one built on the purest form of technique but coupled with contemporary production values — they aim to break boundaries. And certainly, the latter is fully on display in ROOH, which feels like a one-woman show that Thakore has been contemplating for a long time.

ROOH: Within Her showcases women’s heroism in both the family and the real world as well as in myth and legend. It starts with the subject of a 2000-year-old poem about a mythical mother going to a battlefield to prove that her son showed courage and died in war rather than running away as a coward. The designs feel a little strange, with the dead soldiers represented by white poles — once standing erect (if weirdly dangling from the ceiling here) and then falling dead — on a battlefield represented by two loose sofa throws. Only when she finds her dead son and gently caresses him does it become engaging, but it seems too little payback for the humdrum search that precedes it. There are a lot of voice-overs throughout the show, and even when in English, it can be difficult to grasp the full context; several times, I felt rather confused about where we were. The inclusion of Tamil and Gujarati poems clearly held meaning for many in the audience, and at one point, there was laughter at some reference that was lost on me. Surtitles would help.

One of the great aspects of the show is that Thakore shares the stage with four terrific musicians, who also occasionally augment the storytelling as extras - moving and supporting the action. The music, composed by Alap Desai, certainly lifted the spirits when the dance did not. Much of the movement felt somewhat kathak light and lacked the virtuosity I normally associate with those trained in the form. It felt a bit like going to an opera and discovering that much of the singing was merely recitative. However, the contemporary-based caressing of the dead son rose above the average, as did the fearless marching of Heerbai (another legend), driving a lion away from her flocks while all the men in the village quaked.

There were also charming family conversations, with Thakore’s young daughter (Mahika) quizzing and delving into the heroism of great grandmothers and others in asserting their choices and the sacrifices they made for education and a larger role in the world. The daughter’s words were always easy to hear, but the responses could be a little mumbled at times - theatre speakers are not kind and that really ought to be allowed for. Nevertheless, one picked up enough to be thoughtfully engaged, even if the largely subtle, pedestrian movement on stage did not seem to add any extra dimension or depth. I suspect it has much depth and meaning for Thakore, and it is just a shame that this did not travel across the footlights.

All up I think the inspiration behind ROOH: Within Her is fantastic — there is certainly a dance work here, but the current telling feels very much like a first draft and homespun rather than distilled and polished for a wider audience. I can’t help but feel it all needs to be thrown in the air and rethought, and actually, that would be an act of great heroism in itself.