Indian Steam (2016–2017)

A RE:Imagine India | UK-India Year of Culture Project

Indian Steam was a landmark collaboration between Parkour Circle and The UPG Team (opens in a new tab) (Urban Playground Team), the UK’s original Performance Parkour company. Supported by Arts Council England and the British Council as part of RE:Imagine India, the project celebrated 70 years of Indian independence through the UK-India 2017 Year of Culture.

The project reimagined UPG’s touring show STEAM for Indian audiences and performers. Two versions evolved in parallel - one Indian, one British - shaped by the communities that helped create them.

India Tour (January–February 2017)

The team travelled 900 miles across Tamil Nadu by rail, delivering workshops and performances at:

Coonoor, 17–20 January - St Anthony’s School
Coimbatore, 21–24 January - Suburban School
Puducherry, 28–31 January - Sharanam Centre (with Satya Special School)
Auroville, from 31 January - Opening performance at Adishakti Theatre’s ‘Remembering Veenapani’ Festival
Chennai, 10–11 February - YMCA College of Physical Education and Rail Museum at ICF Perambur

UK Tour (2017)

Parkour Circle members joined the UPG Team in the UK for:

Dewsbury Market Place, 5 August - for Creative Scene
Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, 20 October - Diwali celebration at the Djanogly Theatre

Project Impact

9 performances to 4,500+ live audience
34 workshops with 900+ participants
18 partner organisations across India and UK
10 million+ reached through print, online, and radio

The legacy continues - Parkour Circle tours our own version of Indian Steam through Tamil Nadu, and the 2PK techniques developed during this collaboration now form part of our ongoing special needs education programmes.

Read more about Performance Parkour →

Project Partners

Satya Special School (opens in a new tab), Adishakti Theatre Arts (opens in a new tab), Vidyasagar (opens in a new tab), Creative Scene (opens in a new tab), Lakeside Arts (opens in a new tab)

Video Diary

The UPG Team filmed the project from research and development through to the last stop in Nottingham. Each video plays here when you press play; nothing loads from YouTube until then.

The videos are published by Prodigal UPG on YouTube (opens in a new tab); captions are available where YouTube provides them.

Further Reading

The Indian Steam tour blog (opens in a new tab), kept by the UPG Team and Parkour Circle during the tour
Parkour Circle & Vidyasagar (opens in a new tab), by Kavitha of Parkour Circle
Indian Steam on Prodigal UPG’s website (opens in a new tab) (archived copy; the company’s website is no longer online)