Creative Youth Network commissioned Deepraj Singh to produce Rooted - a contemporary dance theatre production with emotive imagery, bringing together the stories of young people living in isolation.

1. All we ask of them is that their focus is
an issue that matters to young people,
and that all the performers and back and
front of house staff are young people.
Every year Creative Youth
Network commission’s a young,
emerging artist to make their own work.
Though supported by our creative team,
they have full creative and budgetary
control.

2. In 2019 we commissioned young,
emerging dancer Deepraj Singh to
choreograph and produce Rooted.
Having followed and supported Deeps
journey since secondary school, it is a
privilege to support him in taking charge
of the whole process.

3. Drawing on conversations with young
people in youth clubs and small groups,
Rooted is a synthesis of their experience
of isolation and Deeps own family and
cultural experience of moving to a
sometimes hostile, isolating culture.

4. Rooted is a contemporary dance theatre production packed with emotive imagery and rich textured
movement, bringing together these unheard stories of different experience of living in isolation.

5. Performed by passionate
young dancers using
visceral group
choreography, it examines
what it means to feel
alone, exploring the
duality of isolation and
assimilation through
contemporary dance
theatre.

6. Every performance began with the audience dining together. And every performance
concluded with a discussion about young people’s experience of isolation, and the
fact that those under 24 feel more isolated than any other age group.

7. Over three nights the audience of mainly young people
were part of an immersive experience, many for the first
time. If even one of these felt that they weren’t so alone, or
were inspired to seek out other performances, or to think ‘I
can do that’, then Rooted succeeded.

8. And they weren’t alone

9. Since graduating from London
Contemporary Dance School in 2015,
Deepraj has choreographed, taught, and
performed in and around Bristol, as well as
toured internationally with Akademi’s 'The
Troth' (choreographed by Gary Clarke).