It's hard to describe Shobana Jayasingh's choreographic style. She has fused martial arts, contemporary dance and traditional dance from her native India; used an electronic, computer screen-style backdrop; and webcast her favourite Indian dancer in Greenwich, England, live from Bangalore. This week, she'll embark on a unique collaboration in Hong Kong. For the past few months, Jayasingh has been working with her dancers in a studio tucked away in a remote corner of north London, where she lives. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a choreographer with the City Contemporary Dance Company has been working on a separate routine. By Friday, Jayasingh and her troupe will be in Hong Kong to marry the two together in an ambitious cross-cultural collaboration. The result, city:zen, is part of the New Vision Arts Festival. The double-bill programme also includes her work exit no exit. 'It's quite a radical idea,' she says. 'It's so much bigger and more complicated than just touring. But one of the things I learnt when I was in Beijing some years ago was that in China joint signatureship is done regularly. We don't really do that over here in Britain - it's not the tradition.' Jayasingh says her brief isn't to make 15 minutes of continuous narrative. 'It's to make 15 minutes that can then be integrated into someone else's 15 minutes. I have a DVD of some of the work the choreographer there has done already, but it's just a reference point. They'll get a DVD of what we've been doing.' The fortysomething Jayasingh founded her dance company almost 20 years ago, and has some grand plans to celebrate. One idea is to hire a shop window in London's West End for a dance installation that will stay there for the six-week duration of the Dance Umbrella festival, London's annual shindig for contemporary dance. 'I'd also like to continue our links with China,' she says. 'Maybe put together a double bill - but that's still in its infancy.' Two years ago, one of her favourite dancers (who had been with her company for five years) got married and went to live back in Bangalore. Jayasingh struck on the idea of webcasting the dancer from her Bangalore hotel - 'it was an open terrace with blue tiles and stunning architecture' - while her dance troupe performed in front of a projection of her in a Greenwich theatre. The performance went well, despite some technical difficulties. 'There was a seven-second delay,' she says. 'We used mobile phones to make sure her entrances and exits were timed to come in seven seconds before the dancers in London. She had to start dancing at midnight. It was a very interesting exercise - the coolest science lesson I've ever had.' Although Jayasingh's work is not overtly political, it does sometimes reflect social change - even inadvertently. 'Whenever you create a dance you are creating a metaphor for society as you see it,' she says. 'I've never been a believer in multi-culturalism really. The ideal that people imagine is one where everyone lives in self-contained segments in which everyone is happily tolerant of each other. That may have been viable for first-generation migrants, but I think it's asking too much of second-generation migrants to contain themselves and be tolerated and tolerant.' She says younger generations want something more ambitious for themselves. 'As an artist, I'm aware of the levels of tension which happens when people butt against each other,' Jayasingh says. 'Creating a dance, you're either projecting your vision for some rosy future or you're projecting your ideas of what the problems are. But dance, for me, is always a metaphor for life as I see it or experience it.' Jayasingh says her choreography has changed because of these tensions. 'For me, it's difficult now to make dances where people seem to be in a peaceful, beautifully aligned society. When I see a dance that conveys people doing beautiful things together, it's not that I don't enjoy it but for me it's just nostalgic. It's a problem in British society that we haven't found a solution to.' There may be an underlying tension in her work - something violent even - but at its core is also something beautiful that can come only from having someone at the helm willing to break down boundaries. And 20 years on, Jayasingh shows no sign of stopping that. city:zen and exit no exit, Friday-Nov 12, 8pm, Hong Kong Cultural Centre Studio Theatre, HK$120, HK$240. Inquiries: 2370 1044
