Rani Singh is an author and works in broadcasting
and journalism, but maintains her work with
children to promote important folk traditions from
India.Rani was the first South Asian to gain a BA
degree in Performance Arts in Britain, from the
pioneering Middlesex University where she was
taught by distinguished figures such as James
Roose-Evans, Charles Marowitz, and mime exponent
John Wright.
From her childhood she had studied
Indian classical dance and music and she continued
to study these as part of her degree, although she
majored in Drama, making the Hindu epic “the
Ramayana” her specialist subject.
After Middlesex, Rani set up Singh Theatre and was
invited to be part of the Commonwealth Institute
education programmes, both at the Institute in
Kensington London and doing outreach programmes
all over the British Isles.
She responded to invitations all over the UK and
translated the Ramayana into French. She has
performed her unique one-woman rendition of it in
French at Angers.
She has collaborated with many composers and
choreographers like Geoff Stevenson (of Spider in
the Bath fame) Jon Nicholls, and Kathak exponents
Pratap Parwar and Anurekha Ghosh.
She won a Christian Aid grant to visit India and
develop her work in New Delhi and spent
time with Ranjana Pandey and Dadi Padamji.
She has translated techniques learnt in India for
Western audiences with European issues.
She is still one of the few exponents of her
discipline in the UK and has gathered the largest
collection of South Asian puppets in private hands
in the UK.
Rani’s stories and wealth of knowledge are sought
after by television producers and she is a highly
experienced radio writer and performer, having
originated and written many programmes for schools
radio and for children's programmes such as
CBeebies. The material crosses the curriculum in
many ways, from history, geography, religion, and
culture, to art and drama.
