"Hello and welcome to Ash Dance Theatre. Thank you for taking an interest in our company’s work.

 I am Ash and I am a dance maker and artistic director to the company.

 My goal is to bring temple dance to mainstream audiences in the West. I seek to bring a thorough understanding and appreciation of cross culture and cohesion to mainstream audiences here in the UK by creating work that is relevant to their culture and sensibility.

Temple dance may be borne of a temple, but it does not have to stay there. The fact that most temple dance styles date back beyond 900 BC and yet have a vital place in today's world is proof positive as to why its deemed as a classical dance.

I also believe in uniting artists from diametrically opposite genres for example, temple dance, classical ballet and street dance, without compromising on the purity of their individual origins, thereby creating dance vocabulary that forms a cohesive whole while exploring contemporary themes. 

For anything to function in the now, one cannot escape tradition. It is impossible. Yet the longest tradition is that of evolution. Modernity cannot be born without tradition and tradition cannot live and continue without modernity. They go hand in hand. To us that is a vital part of posessing artistic integrety. When that is intact, the possibilities are endless. Temple dance may be ancient, but it is certainly not archaic.

 Dancing is one of the most primitive yet sophisticated things one can do.

We live in magical times. A time to seek similarities and celebrate differences.

We hope you get as excited and passionate about our work as we do when we create them."

 Ash Mukherjee

 Artistic Director