Sooraj Subramaniam

Dance, for Sooraj Subramaniam, is a career that spans continents, and a practice that spans boundaries. From Malaysia to Belgium, dance has carried him around the globe, and simultaneously, grounded him in a strong sense of self. 

Sooraj stepped foot into his first dance class at the age of six in Malaysia, where he was born and raised. His grandmother, who ventured to Malaysia from India before the second world war, was adamant that he and his sister stay close to their roots through the cultural arts. So, together, they began learning Bharatanatyam in a local temple. Over the years, Sooraj hopped from teacher to teacher until he decided to enroll at the Sutra Foundation, where he would meet his eventual guru, Ramli Ibrahim.

Ramli, Sooraj says, was a rigorous trainer whose range reached beyond Bharatanatyam, often incorporating Odissi and contemporary styles into his teachings. “Because he had these different backgrounds in contemporary and classical dance, he was able to be quite open-minded in his approach…We had to get out of our comfort zones and get into leggings and do ballet class, for example. My grandmother didn’t enjoy that,” he says with a laugh.

Although classically trained, Ramli would often bring in guests to teach his classes the basics of ballet, belly dancing, Balinese dance and even Malay martial arts. “He really tried to expand our approach to dance,” Sooraj says. 

Sooraj temporarily parted ways with his guru when he decided to pursue a degree in science and education in Australia. The change of scenery meant that he would no longer be immersed in his usually intense dance schedule. The weight of schoolwork and the frequency of classes also meant that he wouldn’t have time to perform an arangetram. He tried to maintain his practice through small performances and a weekly ballet class with a teacher named Stella Johnson. Sooraj describes Stella as someone “who went to extraordinary lengths to nurture my confidence,” and someone who was quick to notice his talent. She continually urged him to explore the professional landscape, and after some time, her constant encouragement found a way into Sooraj’s heart. Upon graduation, he decided to completely shift paths and follow his truest desire, to dance. 

He placed his degree on the backburner and promptly applied to the Western Australian Academy for Performing Arts. Now, it was full speed ahead as he conjured up the courage and took a plunge into the world of professional dance.

With a base in Indian classical dance and a now formal education in more contemporary styles, Sooraj’s understanding of movement continued to branch even beyond what he was exposed to in his early years. Contemporary vocabularies of the west and classical vocabularies of the east began to not only coexist in his work, but intermingle- surpassing the believed borders that have come to define each genre. 

“It’s like someone being multilingual. You’re able to put each of the different languages in their own compartments, but you’re also able to then borrow ideas from one language and use it in another,” he says. “I’m not saying it’s always successful, but it just expands the way you look at art, and you realize that there are actually more similarities between dance styles, just as there are between different types of people, than there are differences.”

Sooraj utilized his unique perspective when he opened a Bharatanatyam school in Perth, Australia with his cousin. Although the limited time commitment from students only allowed for classes once a week, he strived to incorporate contemporary warm-ups and stretches into each classical lesson. 

Taking cues from his own masters, he maintained a free mind as a teacher and sought to evoke the individual talents within each pupil. “More than trying to mould a student into being the teacher’s idea of perfect, I think it’s better for the teacher to find that student’s own level of perfection. That way, it can inspire and give students continuous inspiration in their own journey,” he says. 

With another diploma under his belt, Sooraj set out to adorn the stages of Asia and Europe. He initially headed to the lively dance scene in the UK to audition for companies and work as a freelance artist, and every so often, he would travel to India to expand his repertoire and polish his Odissi and Bharatanatyam techniques. 

In 2014, he was invited to perform at the International Odissi Festival in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, the motherland of this classical style. Never having had a formal Arangetram due to school, this was one of Sooraj’s solo performances that particularly stand out, not only because of the location, but also because his guru Ramli Ibrahim met him in India and helped guide him through the intense preparations.  

“The physical challenge is always there,” he says. “I’ve struggled with my body image in the sense that, you know, I’m quite tall for a dancer and I have very long limbs. So to try to learn to control all these limbs with this dance style that has very precise movements, that was very challenging for me.”

Performing around the world has greatly refined Sooraj’s dynamic style. He sticks to traditional technique when dancing arranged bharatanatyam or odissi pieces, but in his own choreography, he prefers to erase labels, letting his mosaic of experience entwine and define itself.

Aesthetics-wise, he’s minimal, and tries to eliminate visual distractions for the audience and draw the main focus to his movement. “To me, the costume shouldn’t detract from the dance. The dancer should be in as simple of a costume as comfortable and that allows them to move freely, but also something that suits the dance in which they’re doing,” he says. “Lots of people get sort of generic costumes, which might not suit their body or might not suit the dance; they think it’s a beautiful costume…but they don’t think about about why they’re wearing it.”

He himself, as a vegan, pays his respects to the silkworm by avoiding silk materials whenever possible. Instead, he performs Indian Classical pieces draped in cotton. He chooses colours that compliment his complexion, staying away from the commonly vivid costumes. “I suppose it’s just trying to find a happy medium where I respect the traditions, but then I do it my own way,” he says.

For Sooraj, dance has become so much more than a means of staying connected to his cultural roots. It has infused him with passion, harvested his confidence and helped him, as he says, observe the poetry in daily life. He now works as a freelance dancer in Gent, Belgium, where he moved to be with his partner. Delving headfirst into a international dance career, for him, was a fruitful path, but he’s quick to point out that devoting your profession to the arts can make for a strenuous journey. 

“The reality of the world that we live in is that dance isn’t an easy career,” he says. “Not everyone is going to give you a stage to dance, so you might really have to convince somebody what your production is about, why it’s important, how it’s beneficial for the community around you.That’s a lot of work…Half an hour of pure bliss on stage is the result of say months and months of rehearsals, funding applications, travelling back and forth to have meetings with people…”

But, as someone who’s leaped from a degree in science to a successful career dance, it’s clear that with enough passion and devotion, anything is possible. 

 “If you have it in your heart that you absolutely want to dance, then you must do it. Because otherwise, you’re doing a disservice to yourself and to everyone else around you. There’s nothing worse than someone living life unhappily,” he says. “If you knew that dance was the one thing that was going to make you happy, then you absolutely have to do it.”