IN|FORM | Andrea Lam
Contributed by Andrea Lam, Dance Masala (Bollywood Dance Company)
What is your first memory of dance?
My first clear memory of dance is the baby ballet classes my mum sent me to as a 6-year-old at ‘Sayers Dance’ in Kenmore. Mum took great pleasure in making me full length chiffon tutus with sew-on jewels bedazzling it, and I loved it too. The teachers, however, did not love that I was not sporting the requisite Uniform tutu and this ended my prima-ballerina career at the tender age of 7. I did not revisit dance again until I was 19 where I attended a Bollywood Class and Hip-Hop Class in West End run by Rachael Jacobs, and fell in love with Indian Music and Dance.
Do you still dance for pleasure? What kind of thing?
I dance to express myself as an Artist. I’ve always been interested in processing my lived experience through art. Music, Visual Art, Performance, Videowork… As someone who was brought up with formal music training, seeing the music come alive on and through the body is what appeals to me most in dance. I have always been fascinated by people who express themselves through physicality.
Me? I dance for pleasure. I dance to process pain. I dance to pay my rent. I dance to push my own artistic boundaries. I dance to play and explore. I dance to connect to people. I dance to be seen.
What’s your current role? How do you explain it to non-dance people you meet? How long have you been doing your current job?
I am a working artist and the director of Dance Masala Bollywood Dance Company which I founded in 2012. Outside this, I explore my identity through my work which includes video, projection, theatre/performance, and music. I’m also a passionate advocate for inclusion and am proud to be a third-culture kid, a woman of colour and a mixed-race woman here in Brisbane, and express this advocacy through pursuing speaking engagements.
What is the most rewarding or fun part of your job and why?
The most rewarding part of my work with Dance Masala is to be able to share our vibrant and joyous Desi culture here in Brisbane. I love seeing people’s faces light up as they hit the syncopated beats with ‘thumkas’ when they previously claimed to have ‘two left feet’. I love seeing people learn body awareness, and grow as dancers, and find themselves growing as people. I love how open and inclusive our community here at Dance Masala is.
What are the things you’d wish you known when you took on your leadership role?
‘Clear is kind, unclear is unkind’ – this is something I continue learning.
What advice would you give someone just starting their career in dance / or starting a role similar to yours?
Find as many mentors as you can and be transparent and respectful with your intentions and the sort of relationship you would like from them. Value them after they have mentored you and ask them to bless your journey.
If money were no object, what project would you most like to take on?
I want to create my theatre show ‘ITEM’ that is both a love letter and a cease-and-desist letter to Bollywood. We just did our first development through Supercell and I’m excited to continue the project.
If you could change one thing in the world of Australian dance, what would it be?
I would love for the world of Australian dance to be more diverse with artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures telling more stories through dance. I especially would like to see more stories told by third culture children, where the movement vocabulary is reflective of their identity and the diversity of their movement practice. This is mostly because I would like to see myself reflected on stage – like we all do.
What was the show / performance (that you haven’t been involved with) that has had the biggest impact on you?
Hot Brown Honey had a huge impact on me because it showed me brown and black women on stage owning who they are and expressing themselves in so many different ways. It also shone a light on systemic issues, racism, violence and other themes that were heavy in nature but it did not feel heavy-handed or didactic. I thought that was masterful.
What are your plans for the future (either in dance, or in the rest of your life)?
I want to make a show. I want to study psychology. I want to have feet that are ridiculously strong that I could crack a whole walnut with them.