He studied with Pratap Pawar, later becoming his disciple. For the ballerina Sylvie Guillem, his partner in Sacred Monsters (2006), "he has an unusual energy and light, and a thirst to do things. Akram Khan was born in 1974, and while many world events affected him through his lifetime, much of his inspiration for choreography comes from a broader, more humanistic approach. Set to Sawhney's original score, and without text, it is billed as a return to "pure movement". "I suddenly became aware of my own colour and the way I was looked at, carrying a bag on a train. "My mother's devotion towards me taught me devotion towards my art," he says. The Seventies saw many women's rights, gay rights, and environmental movements. If you're honest and truthful to what you're doing, you can whisper on stage and pull people in. It made me stronger." For Kureishi, a huge admirer, Khan is "naive in the way dancers are. He intentionally strives to be diverse and the result is an interesting mesh of all the things they each bring to the table. The first inspiration, explored in the opening of Dust, are the trenches, and the men building them and living inside them. Baby Boober is the result of the end of World War II, when birth rates across the world spiked. Photos by Richard Haughton. With his first full-length choreographed work Kaash (2002), with Sawhney and Kapoor, he was acclaimed as one of the most exciting choreographers of his generation, for a work linking physics with Hindu philosophy. Last performance: 30 November 2002, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris. The injury, Khan recalls, sitting on a balcony outside Curve's rehearsal room, was "pretty bad, but it wasn't about age, as some people thought". He began dancing and trained in the classical South Asian dance form of Kathak at the age of seven. Yet as a kid he was inspired by Michael Jackson, as a young adult he trained in western contemporary dance, and in his 1999 film Loose in Flight we … I find religious phenomena beautiful and meaningful, but I don't want to say 'that's it, that's the one'. He is amazing. Gnosis, which premiered earlier this year and was based on a Mahabharata tale of a blindfolded queen, grew into a Kabuki-inspired mother-son duet with the Japanese taiko drummer and dancer Yoshi Sunahata. this current, in search of what it might mean to be connected not just He doesn't drink, "partly for that reason, and because my parents wouldn't want me to". Judith Mackrell @judithmackrell. And I started my quest to raise the money needed to … inspiration for choreography comes from a broader, more humanistic approach. With a specially commissioned score by long-term collaborator composer Nitin Sawhney, Vertical Road draws inspiration from the Sufi tradition and the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi. His production aspects such as props, costume, lighting, and set as well as theatrical dance, text, and narrative bring a lot to hi work. His father, from East Pakistan, was a student in Britain in the 1960s then returned to London with his wife after Bangladesh's independence in 1971. Khan has, though, riled some traditionalists. AKC’s technical Head found Shilpakala adequate. "A dancer talks with his body," he said to an expectant full house at Sadler's Wells theatre in London. When he sat for a commission by the National Portrait Gallery in 2008, the artist Darvish Fakhr caught him in nine dynamic poses. His tendency is to explore topics related to the psychology of culture, the group, and the individual, pushing acceptance of the human being while acknowledging and appreciating the varying differences between us. I grew self-conscious in a way I never was before – especially in London. group, and the individual, pushing acceptance of the human being while A String of Rites includes productions from Michael Keegan Dolan, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and the Akram Khan Company. From Brook: "I took that you start with something full, then peel it like an onion till nothing's left except what you wanted to say." Audiences have changed, and they're greedy – demanding more and more, and quicker. A fractured shoulder last autumn left Khan unable to complete his previous work, Gnosis, in time for its billed premiere. He grew up in a "community formed out of a despair at loss. and survival.”. Akram Khan was born in 1974, and Fleeing to Leicester, he studied Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham, and discovered Pina Bausch and DV8. We arranged to meet. The Company has a major international presence and enjoys busy tours that reach out to many cultures and peoples across the … Now it's more about having a complete conviction that pulls the audience towards me. Everything's a ritual, even tea. "The London bombings had a big impact on me," he says. This seemed like a sign. Yet his 75-minute performance with Binoche – not a trained dancer – was dismissed as a "vanity project" by some critics. Khan was born in Wimbledon, London, England, into a family from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The pirouettes the dancers do in various shapes is definitely something that grabs my attention. "We need the support," Khan says. Evidence: In Zero Degree's, Khan collaborated with sculptor Anthony Gormley, to create the the identical dummies of Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, creating Ibral and Marka. But there's a point where you have to empty yourself, to let other influences in.". There's a paranoia." -Katrina. . "In a world moving so fast (horizontally), As a choreographer, Khan has developed a close collaboration with English National Ballet and its Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. must have influenced him, even in his youth. I was stuck in my classical body. She danced, but never performed, since her father, a prominent mathematician, feared a "bad reputation" attaching to the family. On the Akram Khan ", “DESH meaning 'homeland' in Bengali, draws multiple They bring their own language; their own creativity is a tool." Classical is me in search of the spiritual, and contemporary is me searching for science, destroying and taking things apart. His choreography is so full of life and you can't escape the presence of the strength of the human spirit I think in his work. way that these current events reflect and affect humanity. He created the short piece Dust, part of the Lest We Forget programme, which led to an invitation to create his own critically acclaimed version of the iconic romantic ballet Giselle. while many world events affected him through his lifetime, much of his This is a selection from earlier in the blog that give a glimpse into his upbringing and early dancing:In an interview with The Dependent (UK) newspaper, Khan talks about his early dance inspiration: "We would do it at mela. Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in the arts. In the piece, dancers grasp and grapple with tomes. I said, 'it's nature; I'm losing my hair'." "I fell on sweat, and landed on my shoulder." "When I shaved my hair off, there was a huge backlash; they said, 'you're disrespecting'. I know what I want when I find it. The piece is inspired by two things. Akram Khan is part of the Baby boomers generation. Then the run-through resumed. consciously or sub-consciously, strongly reflects the world we live in through Even in his classical work, "he's coming at it in a different way". Premiere: 5 Oct 2000, Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham. It's like an outdoor Indian festival," he says. In his choreographed pieces, Khan fuses this deeply traditional art form with the innovative flair of contemporary performance. The other substantial part was inspired by the women. But I always see through a kathak eye." Brook also "never separated music from movement, theatre from dance – they're all telling stories". By his own reckoning, Khan has less than 10 years left as a dancer. "Religious books are like a road we choose, or not," Khan says carefully, tip-toeing into sacred territory. While all of these events are Akram Khan Company (AKC) staff already recced five cities of India and returned empty handed as none of the venues matched the requirements. Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in the arts. It is scheduled for the 40th anniversary of independence next year, and because "I can't keep on putting it off". At that time we had no idea where it would lead, but my instincts told me it would be daring and exciting. ", Zero Degrees, in which Khan's dancer was harassed by border guards and found himself sharing a train carriage with a corpse, premiered in London within days of 7 July 2005. "Work created in the performing arts, His parents live one street away, and his sister, an accountant, moved back to the area with her husband, a percussionist who plays with Sawhney. tales of land, nation, resistance and convergence into the body and voice of The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 I am so intrigued by Mr. Khan I want to know more. What other ways do you think his upbringing and personal beliefs influence his work? Akram Khan: Fix, Rush. Kathak (meaning storyteller) grew from ancient, peripatetic bards interpreting the mythological tales of the Indian epics. 49 videos Play all Akram Khan's Giselle Full Movie Manahaanahaja Juhsaananaabba Akram Khan’s Giselle: The Creative Process | English National Ballet - Duration: 10:45. Kathak's rhythmically complex footwork relies on intricate mathematical patterns, and perfect rapport with the tabla player. "In the beginning it was about me moving towards the audience to communicate. That's usually a year, then it's inherent in your bloodstream. ", His new work Vertical Road, his largest ensemble work to date (in which he is not dancing), was described by the Guardian's dance critic, Judith Mackrell, as "viscerally thrilling" when it premiered at Curve earlier this month. I think his upbringing was probably very supportive with strong family and friend bonds. In celebration of the 100 th anniversary of Stravinsky’s masterpiece, Sadler’s Wells has commissioned three events inspired by his work. Akram Khan Company (AKC) staff already recced five cities of India and returned empty handed as none of the venues matched the requirements. Akram Khan The idea for Kaash came from a conversation I had with Nitin about Shiva, the Hindu god who is a central figure in Kathak dance. Yet for Khan, "it's presenting narrative in another way: less literal, more visual – more visceral. Since he co-founded the Akram Khan Company 10 years ago, his collaborators have also included composer Steve Reich, sculptor Antony Gormley and writer Hanif Kureishi. "It's not that I just use their bodies as a tool. That expectation is going to cripple artists', Akram Khan. Born in south London, 1974, to Bangladeshi parents, Akram Khan began dance at the tender age of three. At the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, he gained top marks in choreography. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian. His wife Shanell Winlock, a dancer from South Africa, joined his company early on. He was born in London in 1974 into a Bengali background. In London, she taught Bengali, and Khan grew up bilingual. I love how he gave his turns a twist (no pun intended) by having the leg out, or arms in a different position. "Things happen by accident. ", I've never seen Akram Khan's work prior to this blog, however I have become a fan! A hyperactive child, he was steered into dance by his mother, folk dancing aged three, and learning kathak from the age of seven. It made him reflect: "I'd like to take more time making work. I try not to recreate what's in my head, but to let it happen. But I wrote to AKC for a visit to Shilpakala Academy in Dhaka, without worrying too much about the probability. For him, his contemporary work is not fusion but "confusion". I was at a dress rehearsal in Leicester's Curve theatre of the new ensemble work by Akram Khan, now one of Britain's most feted dancer-choreographers, when a male dancer faltered, peering at the boards, and announced: "There's a lot of blood." I was there 10 hours a day for a year, without one day off." Akram and his company have collaborated with the likes of Kylie Minogue and Florence and the Machine, as well as performing at the London Olympics opening ceremony. A fan of comics and Manga, he also loved maths. Wed 26 Nov 2014 08.17 EST. "The sense of precision. Akram Khan’s Until the Lions is taken from the poet Karthika Naïr’s book Until The Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata, which is a reworking of the ancient Sanskrit epic. affect him as an artist. Shifting from Hindu temples to Mughal courts, it gained Islamic influences, emerging as a classical art after the Raj. I make decisions very late. "In kathak so much is rigidity and maths in the form, and within that I try to find freedom, like a jazz musician.". After touring with Brook, he felt his path was being "laid down for me by my parents and guru, and pressured by the community". When choreographing, "first I conceptualise what we want to explore. Encouraged by his mother, Khan began folk dancing at 3 years old and learning Kathak at the age of 7 (he later became classically trained in the latter). Pakistan’s testing of nuclear weapons in 1998, as well as the rapid growth of "People tend to turn to them when they can't see the path clearly.". It's not abstract." We co-founded Akram Khan Company to create thoughtful, provocative and ambitious dance for the international stage that would … "We're artists," he says. That expectation is going to cripple artists. He sees it as about the journey to faith, and the "vertical road" between the earthly and the spiritual. I love how evident it is in his work that he is inspired by different cultures and world events. Three of the eight dancers are from Khan's regular company, while he chose the other five for the piece, including two from the Middle East. Embracing an artistic vision that both respects and challenges Indian kathak form and contemporary dance, Akram Khan has created a substantial body of critically acclaimed work that ranges from classical and modern solos to artist-to-artist collaborations and company productions. Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in the arts. First, the concept of a trench, of the young men and old men all going into trenches, and disappearing. It was a startling reminder of the pain and blisters behind the beauty. Point: One of the influences of Khan's movement and choreographic styles is collaboration. It involves "different stages of a traveller's life going through his memories in order to prepare for life after death". Akram Kahn - Vertical Road. I also wonder how much different religious beliefs inspire his work. From the classical form, "I take things I feel I can make universal and leave other things till I'm ready, till I know the pathway. Classically trained in the north Indian dance form of kathak, he had his first big break aged 14, touring the world with Peter Brook's Mahabharata. spiritually, but also vertically. one man trying to find his balance in an unstable world…DESH explores fragility It will be at Sadler's Wells on 5-9 October and on tour. Now on the cultural note, did Akram Khan speak with his 8 different diverse dancers about their culture and how that was going to play role into this piece? For the artist Anish Kapoor, another collaborator, Khan has a "great stage presence and an interesting trajectory. His parents were in his mind, "getting older and fragile, and preparing for death. That's where I learnt the most. Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in the arts. Rush. And that is to dance my ideas A pause ensued, while the injured troupe member was identified, the dripping leg-wound bandaged, the stage mopped. Akram Khan MBE is a London-born dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent. ", Readily vaulting artistic boundaries, using speech and dialogue in his work, Khan even choreographed an Indian temple segment for Kylie Minogue in 2006. Simply put, it tells of the rivalry between two great families: the warrior Bheeshma (Khan) abducts the princess Amba thus rendering her unmarriageable. critical, Khan focuses less on specific events for his choreography than the ", 'Audiences have changed, and they're greedy – demanding more and more, and quicker. The actor Juliette Binoche, with whom Khan co-directed and performed in-i (2008) for the National Theatre, saw him at Sadler's Wells while filming in London and was struck by "how strong and earthy he was, and how soft his voice; the opposition was very attractive". I agree, his work is very cultural and humanistic. You'd be there till two in the morning, and we got a lot of racist abuse. Here is a video of Khan discussing his London influences at the Olivier Awards in 2012. Much of his childhood was spent "practising in my parents' garage. Khan regrets that the work "wasn't ready" when it opened in London, though he feels it improved over a six-month tour. About Akram KhanAkram Khan’s biography is full of blended heritage and culture, inspiring his way of thought and movement. At school he won a disco competition with a Michael Jackson Thriller routine that made him a "real person; before then I was a shadow – even my teacher didn't know I was in the class." My parents recreated their culture in a foreign land. ", Although his family is Muslim, for him, "spirituality is far more ambiguous and open, not specific to a lifestyle. Other world events such as the But the use of text was less compelling, even banal. The piece was anchored by its chief creator’s consummate dancing and presence – a combination that helped Khan bag a well-deserved gong as male dancer of the year from the UK Dance Critics’ Circle in January 2013. Born in London in 1974, he grew up in Wimbledon, where he still lives. He is beginning to "accept stillness – it's a fear dancers have. Narrating a train journey he had taken from the Bangladesh frontier to Calcutta, during which he saw an old man die, it became a meditation on borders and in-between spaces, life and death. At Svapnagata, he said the ritual fastening of his ankle bells distinguishes his classical work. He has no fear – which can be difficult but inspiring." His tendency is to explore topics related to the psychology of culture, the I was not very familiar with Akram Khan but i can't believe it, I am completely sold. Yet though he adores Kabuki and Noh theatre, "they don't love me because I'm always moving too fast". Akram Khan is one of the UK's most inventive and captivating dancers and choreographers. Pulse: 'Akram Khan - Creativity From Chaos' by Donald Hutera (27 Mar 2013) In 2011 came Desh , an epic autobiographical solo that many greeted as one of Khan’s finest work to date. Though not the first British choreographer inspired by classical Indian forms (Shobana Jeyasingh was a pioneer), he invented his own vocabulary of movement, an eloquent "confusion" of styles. . He looks wistful. Instead, he is off to Bangladesh in November, working on a solo piece with a Bengali text, a long-held ambition. Its process is organic not intellectual. Company website there is a description of his work Bahok, created in 2008: Here is a video of the outstanding performance. Then I embellish it and put form to it . He sees the body as a sponge for new influences. From watching 'Bahok', I really appreciate his different uses of technique. I don't want the big machine of the dance world, with all the adrenaline, to dictate the pace. They came when the pubs shut. In kathak, he says, the male dancer reflects the icon Krishna, with long hair. "I saw a side of life my parents tried to protect me from, a culture of alcohol. It's like a discovery; sometimes it comes very late." Its journey to Andalucia with Gypsies via the Arab world was illuminated when Khan danced kathak to the flamenco guitar of his friend and collaborator Nitin Sawhney at Svapnagata, an Indian festival they co-curated at Sadler's Wells last year. Discover what happened on this day. in the face of natural forces, and celebrates the resilience of the human The even more lauded Zero Degrees (2005), a duet in which he and Flemish-Moroccan dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui danced with Gormley's inanimate body-doubles, won a Laurence Olivier award and expanded his audience. Akram Khan Company Riley Theatre, Leeds **** A kram Khan's arms slam down like pistons and flutter as fast as hummingbird wings in this fascinating programme of … globalization, technology, and media are happening within his time and no doubt In the studio, I let go of everything. An ancestor of Spanish flamenco, it uses lightning-fast spins punctuated by statuesque stillness, fluid arm movements and rhythmically controlled foot-stamping with percussive ankle bells. I would definitely say Akram incorporated this cultural diversity in his pieces. "I'd like to do that again." Maria Roberts talks to the choreographer about his career, Bangladeshi influences, creative practice and his perspective on race, equality and diversity. Akram Khan was born in 1970s. Audiences for contemporary dance have grown in the past decade; the demands on Khan are driven by his success. collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Rwanda Genocide in 1994, India and with the growth of technology and information, I am somehow inclined to move against "When I put my bells on there's a sense of spirituality, which is important to me. He found inspiration in many places, from the ascent of angels, and Rumi's poetry, to the Terracotta Warriors, and a taxi driver in Sydney who knew his father. He is 36. I read about Ramanujan, about science and spirituality." "It's about taking risks, and there's a danger when you stop doing that. Sawhney sees him as "doing something no one else can. THE THEMES. "It's always when you're lost that you discover something – or yourself," he says. Greek for “stranger” or “foreigner”, Xenos is inspired by the legend of Prometheus and the untold story of the 1.5 million Indian soldiers who fought in the First World War. "The intelligence of dance is far superior to intellectualism – the body is more honest and direct," he says. It's their process.". A purely abstract work inspired by the observation of parachutists in “freefall”, a physical state between tremendous speed and serene stillness. acknowledging and appreciating the varying differences between us. ", He has classical roots in common with Michael Clark, the Royal Ballet prodigy turned punk choreographer. He began his stage career in the Adventures of Mowgli tour 1984–1985 produced by the Academy of Indian Dance, now Akademi South Asian Dance. His six-week residency at Curve was a return to the city where he found his "voice", studying contemporary dance at De Montfort University, and subsidising his student days as a pizza delivery boy. the artist’s eye". When dancers talk about narrative, that's for them, not necessarily for the audience. I find that beautiful." The new project by renowned English dancer and choreographer Akram Khan is a concentrated epic about ritual and remembering, inspired by a fragment of the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh.As I arrive at the end of my dancing career, I have awakened to a new way of dancing. He became a spellbinding soloist in the 1990s, in both classical recitals and his unique brand of kathak-inflected contemporary dance. Born in London to a Bangladeshi family, Khan received training in the Kathak style of classical Indian dance, in which rhythm and movement cohere into narrative. Bahok (2008) – meaning "carrier" in Bengali – set in an airport transit lounge and using dancers from the National Ballet of China, further explored transience, belonging and the body as a carrier of home and language. He opened a restaurant in Wimbledon where Khan helped out. It was to be a moment that would define both our careers. "It was through the joy of Indian music that I started to see the wonder of mathematics. A traveller's post-apocalyptic journey, it begins with the searing flash of an atom bomb, rupturing a vision of rippling water. But my body started to change, and it influenced my mind." Khan was intrigued by the thought that the men dug into the earth to build trenches, knowing that they were very likely to die as soon as they stepped out of them. He became a spellbinding soloist in the 1990s, in both classical recitals and his unique brand of kathak-inflected contemporary dance. At the age of 13, he was cast in Peter Brook's Shakespeare Company production of Mahabharata, touring the world betwe… He's second-generation, doing that double-take at kathak tradition as an insider-outsider." He's confident; even if he has doubts, it doesn't show. But I wrote to … "I didn't want to, because nobody would sit and watch. Yet influences on Khan's choreography range from hip-hop and Kabuki to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Last … Photos by Richard Haughton. This time "my body talked back". They are associate… I see how graceful about death they are; my mother has a faith that there's something after. Inspired by Akram Khan’s award winning final full-length solo XENOS, Chotto Xenos is a captivating dance production that takes young audiences back in time, exploring the often forgotten and untold stories of World War 1 colonial soldiers, in order to shine light on our present and future. Their wedding in 2005 was a "Bollywood extravaganza" in Alexandra Palace. His virtuosity has lured star performers from other disciplines. Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in the arts. I was enthralled and inspired by his movement language and ferocious talent. spirit in the rhythms of labor, in dream and story, and in transformation For me, it's an inspiration and direction, but you make your own choices, not someone else." A transfixing solo, and a first foray into group choreography by Akram Khan . It taught me about humility: when people are violent and aggressive, you don't return it and become them. But he feels his "shouting" phase is over. "I love everything Japanese," Khan says. "But he's not rebellious," says Kureishi, "he's determined and single-minded." The 1970s were a "pivot of change", it was an era of economic struggle, cultural change, and technological innovation. Akram Khan leads one of Britain’s most exciting contemporary dance companies. People were talking and my mother said 'if you can win this audience, this is the test'. 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