Jiva Parthipan- Celebration of a Life

A different show, a different stage. A dancer waltzes around a stage bearing aloft a China teapot. The dancer is mischievously yet seriously reflecting on the supposed civilisation of afternoon tea, rooted as it is in the barbarism and violence of colonialism. 
These are snapshots of just two of the very many shows created by the dancer, performance artist, activist, teacher and professional disruptor, Jiva Parthipan, who died on the 1st October 2025 aged only 51.

Jiva was born and grew up in Sri Lanka into a Sri Lankan Tamil family. He came to the U.K. as a 16-year-old travelling alone, escaping the violence and increasing anti Tamil hostility in Sri Lanka. He initially intended to study engineering and even apparently had a brief flirtation with the idea of accountancy before finding his calling in the arts and undertaking a BA in Performing Arts at Middlesex University (Hutera 2008).[1]

Jiva was trained in the South India classical dance style bharatanatyam and was an early member of the 1990s South Asian Youth Dance Company, Yuva. In 1999, he became the first male dancer in the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company. The dance writer Donald Hutera recalls how when he first joined the company a national dance critic referred to him as ‘an intruder in the hive’ and quotes Jiva reflecting that joining Shobana’s company ´was a leap for both of us’ (Hutera, 2008: np). Shobana comments on her time working with Jiva:

He was a unique, stimulating (and at times outrageous!)  artist to work with. We shared a common Sri Lankan upbringing of which he was a sharp and wry commentator.  As a person I remember his warm camaraderie and sense of fun. 
(Shobana Jeyasingh, personal communication).

Jiva performing in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company. Image by Chris Nash, courtesy of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company.]
After leaving Shobana’s company, Jiva completed an MA (Distinction) in Performance Making at Goldsmith’s College, London. Professor of Theatre and Performance, Anna Furse wrote about her grief at Jiva‘s loss on Facebook, recalling the ‘truly memorable political and poetic works‘ he made during his time there (Anna Furse, Facebook, October 2025).
Jiva moved from the U.K. to join family in Dharug Country, Sydney, Australia and for the last decade or so has been enriching the Australian arts scene with his original and deeply human work. He worked as the Cultural Development Officer for NSW STARTTS (service for the treatment and rehabilitation of torture and trauma survivors) and a tribute from STARTTS celebrates the way Jiva connected with many refugee communities and worked across many cultures – ‘Jiva didn’t separate Art from people. He paid attention to what others were going through and found a way to meet them where they were at’ (STARTTS, on Facebook, October 2025). Campbelltown Arts Centre, another Sydney based organisation (located on Dharawal Land) that Jiva had worked with described how Jiva’s work ‘challenged societal norms…and illuminated the most vulnerable aspects of human experience – always with beauty, humour and unflinching honesty’ (Campbelltown Arts Centre on Facebook, October 2025). 

Jiva in La Pocha Nostra: The New Barbarians Collection Fall 2007: The Designer Primitives on the Runway, Runway at the Arnolfini, Bristol, commissioned by IBT. Photo by Karl Newland 

This image does much to bring together his humour, sense of mischief and political conscience. courtesy of
For Jiva, the political did not outweigh the human. Rather, his activism and political conscience arose from his concern for and with people. In the words of choreographer, dance artist and friend of Jiva, Mavin Khoo,

His exploration of his queerism and Southasianess was never articulated as an expression of identity politics to serve an agenda. It was purely his embracing of his ‘otherness’ as a space of celebration.
(Mavin Khoo, Personal communication)

At his funeral theatre maker-creative producer Sally Sussman, who had worked with Jiva on  ‘The River Project’ (2022) said of him that though inevitably involved in multiple different projects, while with Jiva one equally inevitably felt that yours was the only project he was engaged in. 

As with projects, so with people. Jiva’s lively intellect and warm curiosity in other people meant that when you were with him you felt the full glow of his attention. Performance artist and theatre maker Shane Shambhu, who met Jiva over 30 years ago, when they were both studying bhratanatyam with Pushkala Gopal, recalls a trip to Glasgow with Jiva for the Live Art Review, when they would spend the nights talking until the sun was rising over (naturally over several glasses of wine). Thanks to Shane, we were lucky to have Jiva visit us during a trip to Birmingham in 2022. At one point I looked up to see Jiva deeply engrossed in conversation with my then 16-year-old elder son. At that time my son was a slightly awkward teenager whose primary interests revolved around Batman. And yet he and Jiva and found something to talk about that was mutually fascinating. 

 Jiva next to the Paramatta River, image: Conor O’Brien

At his funeral, we were shown images of the young Jiva - several of him portraying the God Krishna. The priest recited the Vishnusahasranama. The wonderful vocalist sang a Tamil Padam about the child Krishna. Krishna – the deity of playfulness and mischief, of puncturing false ego and unmasking false piety, Krishna for whom the demands of justice and righteousness must always be tempered by the sovereignty of love. Small wonder this was the deity with whom Jiva had a particular affinity. 
The word Jiva in Sanskrit means living being, soul or life force. The tributes that have flowed out to Jiva testify to his liveliness, his love of life and the life spirit he shared with others. That Jiva should die, and so young, feels simply wrong. And yet, though it feels trite to say, it remains the case that Jiva continues to be present through all of us who cherish him, remain inspired by him, who miss him.

The last words belong to Jiva, and feel particularly pertinent for a South Asian dance audience. In a 2024 essay commissioned by the Powerhouse Museums group he wrote, 
‘… I still dance in the privacy of my flat (for the gods to see). It’s a different kind of dancing as my Parkinson’s disease continues to develop but dancing has always been part of my art practice. It connects me to this place and others at the same time.’
Dancing as connection to people and place. 
In the same essay he writes about ritual, 
‘I do not know why…but I do know that ritual is an important part of all of us. The doing is the meaning of the ritual. If you want to know all the words and procedures, use them to give a speech instead.’[2]
Words, procedures, speeches – all are insufficient. A flavour of Jiva, his spirit and his work can be found in this 9-minute video of his 2022 work The River Project. 

https://patternmakers.shorthandstories.com/art-sparks-change/case-studies-of-cacd/case-study-the-river-project/index.html

There are also plans in progress for a UK screening of Jiva’s 2025 film PakiBoy 2, which revisits his 2000 piece, PakiBoy,[3] made with filmmaker Zanny Begg. Look out on Pulse for further updates.
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[1] Much of the information in this paragraph was drawn from a 2008 Pulse article about Jiva by Donald Hutera which can be found here: https://www.pulsearchives.co.uk/jiva-parthipan-circling-the-outsider/
[2] You can find the full text of Jiva’s essay here: https://powerhouse.com.au/stories/rivers-here-and-rivers-there#rivers-here-and-rivers-there
[3] PakiBoy was initially performed at Watermans Arts Centre, West London as part of Watermans Dancefest 2000 programmed by Hardial Rai.