the company

Artistic Policy

Vayu Naidu Company was founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Vayu Naidu herself has an accomplished storyteller, writer, performer and workshop leader and teacher. As the name of the company suggests, her vision and skills are at the heart of its artistic journey. She is supported by many established arts organisations and associate artists. They share her conviction of the power and relevance of story, as a source of human understanding and fulfilment, particularly in a culturally diverse society. Her work is striving for the possibility of insight and wisdom, enlightenment and understanding, both for the artists and the audience on the journey with her. Vayu situates this journey firmly in the contemporary world, drawing on ancient and traditional stories to light the way, while also composing new work.

Having been project funded from inception, the company were made into a ‘Regularly Funded Organisation’ in 2004 by Arts Council England. Formerly based in Canterbury, Vayu Naidu Company is now firmly based in London, and its works performed nationally and internationally.

The Art of Storytelling

Vayu Naidu’s art of storytelling is derived from the Indic oral tradition and its energy comes quite simply through the telling, not reading, of a story. Imagery is dense with Rasa, or mood, triggering emotional resonances. These skills are developed by the storyteller’s craft in creating words and images in working harmony. Storytelling for Vayu is about composing oral literature where the emotive impulse is from the oral imagination. It is a creative expression in speech, movement and music that draws on historic incident to heighten an awareness of human nature. It demands “known” story or text in speech, dance and music. It calls on the presence of each performer continually. The ownership is individual in this company’s creativity, but with a collective consciousness and an artistic responsibility

Thought Provokes

The essence of creativity for Vayu Naidu Company is to keep a finger on the pulse of the ethos that it lives in, and to continually make cross references between tradition and contemporary, all integrated within a new programme called THOUGHT PROVOKES. The series offers by its work new ways of re-thinking history and the idea of heritage, while accounting for Britain’s hybridity, secularity and self-expression. It offers debate, and a slice of diasporic intervention in the form and content of the series’ works. For younger audiences it offers an aspect of cultural memory that is fast being forgotten. This Trilogy began with Joining Forces in 2004 and then Nothing but the Salt in 2005 and will complete with Mistaken… Annie Besant in India in 2007.