“As You Are” Creates Space For Discomfort & Healing

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Pauses, silences, and rhythm

What happens when a traditional art form meets modern storytelling? You get “As You Are,” a powerful performance that bridges cultures, generations, and schools of thought. Produced by Shruti Abhishek Dance, a group of six Bharatnatyam dancers wove together Indian classical dance and contemporary theater to tell deeply personal stories about womanhood, motherhood, caregiving, resilience, and the struggles that often remain unspoken.

The dancers—three born and raised in India and three from the United States—share a common foundation in Bharatanatyam but bring diverse perspectives shaped by their training under different teachers. Traditionally, the art form’s storytelling has centered around mythological figures, gods, and goddesses. However, the dancers wanted to expand the framework to explore urgent, modern narratives. The vision for the performance was shaped by director Vaibhav Arekar, who encouraged the group to think about how such stories could be told through different bodies. 

Working with Narika

Similar work was done in India a few years ago, said Shruti Abhishek, one of the dancers. But the group wanted to tell the relevant stories here in the U.S. This program was supported by a grant that required the group to partner with a non-profit organization that had similar values and beliefs; this led to their collaboration with Narika, a nonprofit organization serving domestic abuse survivors in the Bay Area. 

The group underwent training on how to engage sensitively with participants who had experienced trauma and then conducted workshops with survivors, which formed the heart of the process. It included dancing, singing, and even puppet-making. 

“We don’t want to know what your story is. You don’t have to talk about it to us,” they had said to the participants. “We’ll just explore. We’ll just creatively do things.”

Although the survivors were never required to share their stories, many chose to do so indirectly through art, shared Shruti Abhishek. One breakthrough moment came during a puppet-making session, where participants expressed personal narratives through the figures they created.

A woman in the world

The work weaves together reflections on the image a woman is expected to uphold in the world, the weight of motherhood, the relentless demands of life and care work, the quiet sacrifice of personal well-being, and the deep, lingering effects of childhood abuse and domestic violence. Shruti Abhishek explained that the structure of the show ensured all the pieces fit together in a way that the audience could process.

“There were so many different stories, we were very careful about when we wanted to give the audience [a chance] to breathe and bring themselves into the work,” said Shruti Abhishek. “Only if there are gaps, only if there are pauses, only if there are silences is when you all—the audience—would come into the scene or just heave a sigh of relief or just chuckle with us, [especially] if there had been a scene before it which was uncomfortable or serious.”

Here are photos that tell the story of this storytelling:

“We are looking into our own image,” explained Shruti Abhishek. “Oh, you love yourself, but there are things that you still don’t. It’s a hint of body image because that was the next scene that we were getting into. We are plucking our eyebrows or our upper lips, shaving our underarms, and just being fit so that you’d want to look a certain way.”

“This person in front of you is your reflection… so we sort of wanted to bring that angle, like, ‘Who are you kidding?’”

“What about society makes you want to dress a certain way or view yourself a certain way? All this, and from that [teen] age onwards. It just keeps building, building, building.”

The group wanted to use props for this scene, and during rehearsals, when Kumar would perform, the rest started playing the pots and pans in the back, making music out of it to show the idea of the kitchen and the sounds of vessels. It then transformed into an absurd dance and became the scene that it is.

“It’s not just about one narrative. The mob mentality just shifts, and it has so many perspectives,” said Shruti Abhishek.

Shruti Abhishek wants to connect with more organizations that share values similar to Narika’s and build collaborations. 

“I think these stories are important. These stories need to be shared,” she said, adding how the many scenes from the show resonated with a lot of their audience. “People just want to know that all these things happen to everyone, and because it’s so common, I can talk about it.”

Her intention through this work is to reach as many people as possible, especially men. 

“I think through that, we heal.”