Writer and performer Mayuri Bhandari delivers The Anti Yogi with a commanding physical intelligence that makes the stage feel unusually alive. This is not a polite deconstruction of wellness culture, it’s embodied, sharp-edged, and at its best, electric.
From the opening moments, Bhandari’s dance is exquisite. Precise, fluid, and charged with meaning rather than ornament. She doesn’t “perform movement” so much as inhabit it. There’s a control to her physicality that makes even her stillness feel intentional. And then there are her eyes, intense, powerful, and unflinching which anchor the entire piece. They do a huge amount of storytelling on their own, as does her wild and wilful tongue, often saying so much more than any words could.
The live accompaniment from composer and percussionist, Neel Agrawal was a real strength in the show and certainly not background texture, but full of it’s own presence in the room. The musical rhythms push, interrupt, and occasionally uplift the action, giving the piece a pulse that feels almost ritualistic. At times, performer and musician lock into something that feels genuinely communal rather than staged.
What stands out most, though, is the audience connection. There are moments where the room shifts, laughter breaking into recognition, then into something quieter and more reflective. Bhandari has a strong sense of when to hold silence, when to lean in, and when to pull back. Those choices land. Hard.
Structurally, the piece moves in waves rather than clean arcs, which suits its themes of cultural fragmentation and reinterpretation. It doesn’t always prioritise a neat narrative flow, but it rarely feels lost. Instead, it feels intentionally unruly, like it’s resisting the very wellness it questions. If there’s a critique to be made, it’s that the ideas sometimes compete for space with the performance energy, and a few transitions could be tighter. But this is a minor imbalance in a show that thrives on presence rather than polish.
The Anti Yogi, directed by Shyamala Moorty & D’Lo is visceral, intelligent, and physically stunning. Bhandari performs with real command, supported by Agrawal who elevates the atmosphere. When it connects, it really connects. Emotionally direct, sometimes unexpectedly moving, a stage that was impossible to ignore. At its core, the piece examines the dissonance between yoga’s spiritual origins and its contemporary commodification. Bhandari shifts fluidly between personas, from wellness influencer archetypes to mythic embodiment and highlights how cultural practices are reframed, repackaged, and often stripped of context in the Western wellness culture.
It is a performance that lingers, not because it offers answers, but because it disrupts assumptions. Intelligent, embodied, and quietly unsettling, it is an assured contemporary solo work alongside live percussion that blends satire with sincere inquiry.
Review - 7th May 2026
Reviewer - Mary Fogg
