Dancer and DJ Arthi Nachiappan is a jack of all trades within the music universe. Blending her favourite genres that she likes to dance to within her DJ mixes, Arthi has gradually grown into a respected choreographer with a handful of celebrity collaborations under her belt as well as an admired DJ and host of the widely popular Rinse FM radio show.
Photography by Jordan Core
Having been born in Chennai, India and moving to Wales when she was two years old, Arthi relocated with her family around the UK such as in Newcastle and gradually Nottingham where she grew up. With her piqued interest in dance from a young age, she found herself attending dance classes “from as young as she could ride a bike to lessons” at around the age of 15. It was from dance class that she eventually discovered the world of DJing sometime later. “I helped choreograph a routine to a hip-hop track and a DJ called DJ Raz who was spinning the tunes. He showed me his software and I thought it was really cool!”
She then went on to learn at the London Sound Academy in 2014 with the music she danced to as her inspiration and gradually went on to perform at a friend’s event Formation which was a DJ competition. From playing to small crowds to then asking radio hosts if she could submit guest mixes on their shows, her passion grew which paved her way into starting up her own radio show on Rinse FM. Formulating a selection of sounds that range between dancehall, reggaeton, afrobeats, amapiano, afro-house and latin, Arthi enjoys playing exactly what sorts of music she likes and dances to, as well as what she would want to hear in a club setting herself. “I like to create moods when in play and I don’t always just play the latest tunes.” She says, “I love the idea of being able to curate a list of good music for someone to hear on a night out that they’ve paid for that’ll put them in a good mood.” Her steady growth landed her an opening set for musician and Rinse FM resident Katy B at Manchester Pride Festival which was her biggest crowd to date.
The world of DJing is most of the time a very inclusive pocket and Arthi, thankfully has never felt isolated from being herself in these settings. But like with any woman in her own lane in a male dominated industry, DJing sometimes came with setbacks. “Most of the time it’ll be people who aren’t even in the music industry who feel the need to quiz you on what you know and about DJing. Everyone plays in their own way, and no-one is perfect either.” With some pressures arising where she felt like she needed to perform perfectly especially as a woman and ethnic minority, she broke through ideologies that she needed to be a perfectionist in any way, and also believes that just because she is someone of an ethnic minority, they don’t to be an ambassador for her race or gender in any situation.
But her embrace for her Tamil culture was highlighted when she landed spot in Beyoncé’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’ music video after dancing all through her teen years and for the duration of university. From being approached by choreographer Ivan Blackstock, whom she respected in the dance world, she had already decided that she wanted to work with him even though she didn’t know who it was for. “I didn’t find out till on the day when I had to sign an NDA and her name was on the top. It was a gruelling but amazing experience.” And she still can’t believe that it happened to her today as she mentions that at the time, she watched it around 20 times and cried. The symbolic nature of the video was to highlight and celebrate all shades of brown skin and for the group of female dancers to be dressed as regal debutants. She also revealed that they also didn’t wear foundation and instead just glitter to extenuate their skin tones. As Beyoncé stands as her biggest achievement to date, it wasn’t her only famous encounter as she also danced for Dave in his music video for track ‘Professor X’ as well as live for Nigerian artist Tiwa Savage, who she is a huge fan of, for the festival Afro Republic, in the video for ‘OUT OUT' by Charli XCX and Saweetie and more recently ‘SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY’ remix by Amaarae and Kali Uchis.
Identity plays a part in everything and there were moments when Arthi found herself relating to Indian culture that she didn’t really for ease of living in Britain. “I’m from the South of India but I speak Tamil and not Hindi. I’ve felt more of a connection with my Tamil side and Sri Lankan Tamils and our culture is so different, beautiful and not commonly understood.” Arthi believes that it’s important not to umbrella all the cultures of India just because she looks Indian as the clothes they wear are different as well as the food they eat. “I used to like being associated with India because of their Bollywood actresses because they all had lighter skin and because I didn’t, I thought it would make me seem more desirable, too.” And this is a problem that many darker skinned south asian’s face, as colourism that has been passed down from generation to generation is still not going away. From being told countless times from her parent’s things like how she shouldn’t stay out in the sun for too long to avoid getting any darker, Arthi was able to break from the belief that darker skin was lesser beautiful than lighter skin tones. And it’s musicians like Beyoncé who allow us to embrace different shades of skin in media by presenting them on big platforms, which is a huge win.
“But it’s easy for representation to be used as a tool to give minorities easy wins…” Arthi ponders. “I think whilst representation is important, it’s sometimes just used for optics and not enough is being done behind the scenes such as improving disparities.” She pauses. “There have been a lot of times when I’ve been in situations where the performers are all people of colour and the whole crew is white.” Nevertheless, Arthi’s identity allows her to be part of a changing dance music scene as events such as No ID and Dialled In, that are created by south Asians for south Asians and it’s important that they’re getting the opportunity and recognition.
When asked about what sorts of good advice she could give someone who might want to follow in her footsteps, she keeps it short. “Give up the idea that you have to be perfect.” After trying hard to perfect her DJing and sound by sending off her mixes to other DJs who would give her feedback, she also realised that when most people listen to the radio, they’re usually doing something else and not recognising if there’s been a slip up. When it comes to dancing, keep practicing and network with as many people as possible in the industry and maybe one day, you might dance for Beyoncé too.
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