Earlier this week, Usha Jey, a 25-year-old Paris-based dancer and choreographer, uploaded her video on Instagram that merged two completely unrelated dance forms — Bharatanatyam and hip-hop — in an attempt to cover the really long distance between them. The result is a stunning mélange as Bharatanatyam adavus (basic steps) hold with popping, locking and breaking effortlessly. Jey, with Mithuja and Janusha (Tamil-Sri Lankan Bharatanatyam dancers from Switzerland), shift personalities with every step as they dance to American rapper Lil Wayne’s 2018 hit, Uproar. “I call it hybrid Bharatanatyam. It is my way of switching between hip-hop and Bharatanatyam, two dance forms that I love, learn, and respect,” says Jey, in an email.
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Dressed in chequered bottle-green Kalakshethra saris and jasmine flowers in their hair, the trio has given a compelling performance and the response on social media (over 25 lakh views on Instagram and a long list of appreciation posts), on the delightful short performance has been hugely popular. American record producer, rapper, and record executive, Swiss Beatz, producer of the original track, recently shared the video on his social media. “Dance is magic for me… My aim is to keep the essence of each dance and create something that does justice to who I am,” says Jey.
A clip from Usha Jey’s hybrid Bharatanatyam viral video. (Photo credit: @signature.ch)
While many loved the uniqueness of the performance, some had issues with cuss words in the lyrics alongside Bharatanatyam. “As I am living in this hip-hop world, I didn’t realise at first that it could disturb. I took a ‘clear’ version of Uproar, a version where curse words are muted. My intentions are right and I’m true to myself. The interpretation one can have is based on their own story and background so I respect every opinion… I try my best to find the right balance and not hurt people’s feelings, while still being me and letting my creativity be,” she says.Best of Express Premium
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Jey was born and raised in Paris. Her Sri Lankan Tamils parents from Jaffna, who left the country in the ’90s during the 26-year-long civil war to escape “the Sinhalese government’s oppression towards Tamil population”. Jey grew up with questions on identity and attempting to understand her heritage.
What the f- though ?
Where the love go ? 🧨@LilTunechi @THEREALSWIZZZ pic.twitter.com/H7kTfQXMO4
— Usha Jey (@Usha_Jey) May 22, 2022
Hip-hop, however, was a natural progression in Paris, a significant training ground for the art form. She went to a class because her best friend didn’t want to go alone.
“With time, I realised that this makes me happy and free,” says Jey. She learned under Paris-based dancer and choreographer Kanon Ghetto-style, who gave her “faith to be a professional dancer.”
It was a few years later that Jey began to connect with her roots. As a child, she’d discovered koothu — an informal dance depicting scenes from ancient epics — through Tamil movies and would perform among family and friends. When she opted to learn Bharatanatyam at 20, she figured it was late, but decided to immerse herself anyway. She found a guru in Bharatanatyam dancer Anthusha Uthayakumar and gave the next few years to the form; hip-hop stayed around. “While growing up as an Eela Tamil in France, I understood that my biggest wealth is my culture. That is why I cherish it a lot,” says Jey.
Her quest to understand identity continued while the war in her country of origin and its horrors resulted in anger and sadness within her. Dance became a form of expression. In a previous video she created in her hybrid Bharatanatyam series in 2020, she danced to One Hundred Thousand Flowers, a song about the discrimination and massacre of Tamils in Sri Lanka, created by Canadian-Sri Lankan rapper Shan Vincent de Paul in his album, Made in Jaffna (2021). He raps, On your left hand side, if you look you’ll see, five-star resorts built with mass graves beneath. Jey’s angry eyes and movements do the talking about an imbrued history.
“If I choose a dance, I have to really take time to understand the background of these forms. It takes time to learn about history… These two cultures are really close to my heart and putting them together is a representation of my life,” says Jey, who will be releasing more videos in the coming weeks.
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