The Art Of Falling Apart: Usha Jey's Choreography Gives Kanye's 'Runaway' A New Life

Runaway is Kanye's greatest single. It’s a nine-minute reckoning with fame, failure, and the weight of one’s flaws that hold up a brutal, unfiltered reflection of the self. Among his fans who have loved him from the Graduation days, it's also a special number because of how problematic the artist's behaviour has been lately (I miss the old Kanye). 'Runaway', came from a different version of Ye; when he was at his most self-aware; acknowledging his arrogance, insecurity, and the way he pushes people away, all while drowning in the very excesses that made him a superstar. The track touched so many hearts across the world because of its powerful truth about hating yourself and still being unable or unwilling to change.

Maybe it's because of this sincerety that Paris-based Tamil dancer and choreographer Usha Jey picked the track for the latest episode of her series, 'Hybrid Bharatnatyam', which blends the classical Indian dance form with hip-hop. The artist employs the intricate expressions and controlled precision of Bharatanatyam to tell a story of self-sabotage, redemption, and the aching need to be understood, which is the central theme of the track.

Usha’s journey into dance wasn’t exactly planned. Growing up in Paris, she was first introduced to French rap through her older brother, but dance wasn’t on her radar until she took a hip-hop class at 16; and that one class changed everything. Hip-hop gave her confidence and a new sense of self. At the same time, she was drawn to Bharatanatyam, but finding a place to learn wasn’t easy. When she did, she found herself in classes full of six- and seven-year-olds, literally standing out in every way.

“I love hip-hop, but I wasn’t showing all of me. And when I did kuthu, a Tamil folk dance, something was still missing,” she tells Elle Magazine. By 2019, she started thinking about what it would mean to merge these two seemingly contrasting forms. She didn't want to water down either but honour both dance forms. That's when she created Hybrid Bharatham — a personal manifesto that merged her two identities. Since then, the series has evolved into a movement with a string of viral videos and live performances across global stages, and major events like Vogue World Runway in NYC and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

In the lastest video in the series, Usha brings out the themes of the track quite masterfully. The dancers in the choreography seem to represent, at least to me, the different fragments of a self in conflict. They might be in discord at times but they still remain a unit as depicted by the formations in the dance. The grace and power of Bharatnatyam and the influences from hip-hop's visual culture come together to tell a story of two worlds working together as a dialogue between the dichotomies within a person.

Usha's interpretation of Runaway embodies an assimilation of different identities, cultures, expressions and realities; both internal and external, through the language of space, contrast and movement. We often rack our brains trying to make sense of all the fractured parts of ourselves through reason, logic and words. Usha manages to achieve it, albeit metaphorically, through dance.

Follow Usha here and watch the performance at the top of the page.

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