Rashpal Singh Bansal

It is with great sadness that we mourn the untimely loss of Rashpal Singh Bansal.

Rashpal Singh BansalIn 1996, Rashpal joined Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) with ambitions for performance and a love of drama. At the age of 16 years, dance was an entirely new experience and he was intensely curious about what he could do and say through choreography and performance. Within a year he had achieved a BTEC First Diploma and an AS Dance qualification. He moved swiftly onto the two-year BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts, where he practiced and honed his choreographic and performance skills in earnest.

Rashpal’s time at NewVIc was characterised by the creative opportunities that arose from a rapidly developing arts curriculum featuring ambitious international projects, artistic partnerships and residencies.  These formative experiences were to have a lasting impact on Rashpal. Some of his reflections on this period are captured in the publication The Creative College (Trentham Books, 2005)

At 17 you are like a sponge and all they (the teachers) did was turn on the tap and I just absorbed it. The most important thing I got from NewVIc was my development in the spiritual sense, in my artistic development. I definitely can’t do justice to how great an impact it had on where I am now. I was going to do acting – I wouldn’t have tried dance.

I always thought the students were treated as artists, spoken with and worked with intellectually. I always felt that was the way the treated us. The teachers didn’t put expectations on you. It meant we felt free to explore as artists.
Rashpal Singh Bansal 2004

Projects in which Rashpal played a significant role included:

Rashpal Singh BansalCyberdream (1996) and White Out (boys dance projects (with Wayne McGregor and The Place, UK and Switzerland 1997); The Greenhill Integrated Dance Project (1997) and Running Scared (V-TOL Dance Company, 1998, both with East London Dance); Utshob (1997, with LIFT), Invisible Rooms (ICA, 1997 with Saburo Teshigawara’s Karas Dance Company, LIFT and The Place), Flower Eyes (2000 with The Place, Stratford Circus and Stoa Cultural Centre in Helsinki)  and Turandot (Education Project 2000 for Edinburgh International Festival with Karas Dance Company).

Rashpal made a major contribution to the success of the college and its evolving relationships with artistic partners, most especially with East London Dance and The Place, with whom he retained a close association. He became a significant role model for his peers. In performance, his fierce energy, choreographic intelligence and distinctive physical presence always pushed fellow students, his teachers and his mentors to strive for authenticity and excellence.

Whilst still a student, Rashpal choreographed and performed his own work many times, often sharing his work with large public audiences. His singular, mature approach was noted by the professional artists who encountered him during this time.  The artistic community that he joined during his training in east London and at London Contemporary Dance School  (1999 – 2002) continued to support and nurture  his career as he established himself as a significant figure in the world of professional dance, working with many of the UK’s leading choreographers, companies and venues.

Rashpal Singh Bansal and Freddie Opoku-AddaieIn 2005, Rashpal Singh Bansal and Freddie Opoku-Addaie were commissioned by East London Dance and NewVIc to create a new work for the public relaunch of Stratford Circus. Their exquisite performance was breathtaking and gave us all a chance to celebrate their unique language, friendship, histories and achievements.

Deeply admired by his peers, Rashpal emerged as a vibrant and rising star from east London. Countless people have been touched by his remarkable qualities as a person and as a performer; his ability to lose himself in the moment, his earnest pursuit of truth, his passion for choreography and his desire to transcend the turmoil of everyday life - to show us something new and to take us somewhere else…

Ever dancing in our memories, the many gifts that he shared in his life with us will remain cherished and loved.

There are tributes to Rashpal on the londondance.com and The Place.

Photo credits

  • Top right – East London Dance 1997 photo Hugo Glendinning
  • Middle Right – Running Scared 1998 V-TOL Dance Company with East London Dance and NewVIc photo Andrew Laing
  • Bottom Left – Stratford Circus 2005 commissioned by East London Dance & Stratford Circus photo Victoria Noden former Marketing Officer at NewVIc