Sweat

Sweat

Breaking Boundaries - An Artist Dreams. The Legacy of Gopal Shetty

What is the Malaysian body on stage? Building a vocabulary.

Gopal Shetty arrived in Malaya in 1955 from the bustling streets of Bombay. He was a dancer in a famous Indian dance troupe brought in to perform in the capital. Entranced by the multiculturalism of Malaysia, Gopal decided to leave his dance company and make Malaya his home. Here he drew from Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, and Manipuri to create a bold new vocabulary that transcended tradition, redefined Indian classical dance and created the pathway for hybridity and innovation.  

He danced up and down the coast, capturing the imagination of our new nation and becoming the favourite dancer of Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. He appeared on RTM in a dazzling array of dances. His Peacock Dance was beamed into every Malayan household.  It made him a legend. Dance for him became a powerful vehicle for storytelling, service, and national identity.

Today we ask, who is Gopal Shetty? What did he leave us?His mark is everywhere but do we know the man, the artist and the dreamer and what exactly he left behind? 

This performance lecture led by his son Umesh Shetty and long-time collaborator Shankar Kandasamy is a deeply personal exploration of Gopal Shetty. Using performance, storytelling, demonstrations and rare archival footage, they illuminate not only his path but also that of Ratha, his life partner and artistic equal. Their intertwined vision has inspired three generations of Malaysian dancers to move beyond boundaries questioning tradition, and embracing hybridity. 

Umesh and Shankar will be joined on stage by Umesh’s mother Ratha, his two children, dancers Rohini and Karthik and a number of ASWARA dance graduates. More than a tribute, this performance lecture will be a masterclass in Malaysian dance revealing a living lineage where Gopal Shetty's spirit continues to shape Malaysian performance as a space of unity, innovation, and cultural dialogue.

Stage Made of Sweat  -   A viewing-listening gathering with film-maker Kumavannan Rajendran 

Theatre was never just for the stage. It was born in fields, factories, and on the estates as a testament to how art insists on expressing itself even under pressure.

In this viewing–listening gathering, filmmaker Kumanavannan Rajendran traces how ancient Tamil art celebrated theatre, how drama troupes from Tamil Nadu once toured Malayan plantations, and how a young Arumugam Letchumanan from Sungkai found inspiration to write and stage his own plays.

Through these stories and sounds, Stage Made of Sweat reflects on how Tamil theatre continues to survive and transform in Malaysia today.

Followed by a conversation between the artists.

Shankar Kandasamy is an established Bharata Natyam dancer in Malaysia. He heads the Bharata Natyam faculty of The Temple of Fine Arts Malaysia, where he was trained and continues to serve as Artistic Director, Choreographer and Performer. He has given many Bharata Natyam recitals both locally and internationally and travelled with the Temple of Fine Arts worldwide performing dance dramas and variety programmes. He is also trained in Odissi, Western Classical Ballet and other regional classical styles of India. This gives him a rich vocabulary of dance which he uses in choreography. Shankar has been one of the key choreographers in all major Dance Drama productions of the Temple of Fine Arts.

He had received the prestigious Arya Bhatta Award in 2012 in Bangalore and the Kala Seva award from Surya Festival in 2010. He has also received the BOH Cameronian award for the full length feature of Crossing Borders staged by ASWARA.

He holds a Masters in Bharata Natyam from Kalai Kaviri, Bharathidasan University Trichy.

Being the head of the Bharata Natyam section Shankar has choreographed and conducted over one hundred and twenty Arangetrams till this date. His sound working knowledge in Sanskrit and Tamil plus his Carnatic music training makes him double up as a resource person for the dance and dancers in Malaysia. He also serves as lecturer in the Degree Programme of the Malaysian National Arts Academy run by the Government of Malaysia. He has choreographed many full length dance dramas in Bharata Natyam and also contemporaneous genres of the same. He recently received the Anugerah Adiguru from the Government of Malaysia for his contribution to Indian dance in the nation. Shankar had been invited to perform a full length solo at the prestigious Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre in Dec of 2024.

Kuma (Kumanavannan Rajendran) graduated from UWE Bristol's law school in 2009, then joined Malaysian Broadcaster Astro as an Assistant Producer before producing freelance on commercials, music and corporate videos. In 2023 he co-founded Om Sakthi Films to develop and produce films that are rooted in the psyche of the minority Tamil community in Malaysia. He is a founding member of Padai Art Movement. In 2024 he was awarded the Fresh Producer Award at Docs by the Sea.