Ep. 74 - Human Costs (Invisibles)

Am Johal, Executive Artistic Director of the Indian Summer Festival, guest hosts this episode! He chats with Rakesh Sukesh about Invisibles, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: January 26 at the Vancity Culture Lab (the Cultch).

Show Notes

Am and Rakesh discuss: 

• The trajectory and transitions of Rakesh's artistic and professional life
• Rakesh's Bollywood background
• How Rakesh dealt with his early social anxiety through dance and performance
• The challenges of creating art after strict Bollywood training
• The various traditions woven into Rakesh's work, including yoga
• How Rakesh situates his work globally, and how it received differently
• Influence of martial arts on Rakesh's dance practices
• The origins of Invisibles and its formation
• How to make work in this very troubled time in the world
• The concept that all people can be diamonds or demons

About Invisibles

In residency with his new creation Invisibles, Rakesh Sukesh—the artist behind because i love the diversity, this micro-attitude we all have it (PuSh 2024)—confronts the brutal realities of the Kafala system, which has enabled modern-day slavery across parts of the Middle East. Drawing from his own family's history, he interlaces visceral movement, stark statistics, and documentary theatre to reveal the human cost of economic migration and to ask urgent questions about whose lives and suffering we choose to value. Sukesh weaves ritual dance and funeral song from the Tamil-Nadu region in India into a powerful meditation on grief, dignity, and remembrance.

Rakesh Sukesh's work emerges from a life deeply shaped by movement—across borders, traditions, and generations. With a career spanning over 25 years, he has captivated audiences worldwide as a performer, choreographer, teacher, and producer. His journey began in Bollywood dance and South Indian cinema before evolving toward contemporary movement infused with his family's lineage of yoga and embodied disciplines such as Kalarippayattu and other Indian dance forms. His international career has cultivated a language of physicality that bridges precision and spiritual depth.

About Am Johal

Am Johal has previously been Director of SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, Co-Director of SFU's Community Engaged Research Initiative and host of the podcast, Below the Radar. He is the author of Ecological Metapolitics: Badiou and the Anthropocene (2015), co-author with Matt Hern of Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life: A Tar Sands Tale (2018) and O My Friends, There is No Friend: The Politics of Friendship at the End of Ecology (2024). He is currently Chair of the Vancouver International Film Festival, Vice Chair of Greenpeace Canada and a board member with the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture. He has presented his work internationally, including the Oxford Literature Festival.

About Rakesh Sukesh

With a career spanning over 25 years, Rakesh has captivated audiences worldwide as a versatile performer, choreographer, teacher, and producer. His journey through the realms of artistry began in Bollywood dance, where he lent his talents to numerous films in South India. Evolving his craft, Rakesh found a new passion in Contemporary movement art, drawing inspiration from his family's lineage of yoga and disciplines like Kalarippayattu and other Indian dance forms.

For the past 15 years, he has traversed the globe, immersing himself in diverse cultures and artistic landscapes, shaping his unique perspective and vision. Experience the culmination of Rakesh's passion, dedication, and global influences in every performance and creation.

Land Acknowledgement

This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver.

It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.

Credits

PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi.

Show Transcript