Collaborations, Training, and Lessons Learned

            Akram Khan was first introduced to the renowned Kathak teacher, Sri Pratap Pawar by his mother when he was just seven years old. He studied with Pawar until he was 18, and eventually became his disciple. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at De Montfort University in Leicester to study dance, and experienced ballet and contemporary styles for the first time. After only two years, he transferred to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. Here his extensive training included classical ballet, Graham, Cunningham, Alexander, and release-based techniques, contact improvisation and physical theatre. Here is an image of Sri Pratap Pawar performing at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations in 2012.

            After absorbing this wealth of knowledge, in 1999 Khan attended the choreographer’s exchange, Choreolab. Here, he created and produced three works, including one called “Desert Steps” in collaboration with Jonathan Burrows. In Khan’s blog, he states that Burrows was essential in his understanding of how traditional Kathak technique relates to his recent understanding of Contemporary.
Here is an image of Jonathan Burrows, one of UK's leading choreographers.

            In 2000, Khan performed his first company work, “Rush”. There was much interest in his new company, and he received financial support from Dance Umbrella, Yorkshire Dance Centre, Dance East, Burmingham DanceXChange and Sampad. From this outstanding performance, he was awarded “Outstanding Newcomer” by the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award. His unique fusion of Kathak and Contemporary was coined by the critics of this performance as “Contemporary Kathak”. Here is a link to a review of "Rush" by Stephanie Ferguson.

            Just one year later, in 2001, his newly found company was commissioned by the London Sinfonietta to create “Related Rocks”. This piece was considered as a test run for his first full-length work performed in 2002 called “Kaash”. This ambitious collaboration included music by Nitin Sawhney and designs by the internationally known artist and sculptor, Anish Kapoor. “Kaash” was premiered in the Exit Festival Maison des Arts in Creteil. In this work, he continued building bridges between Kathak and Contemporary techniques. Here is a video of "Kaash".

            For “Red or White”, Akram collaborated with Matthew Hart and the creators of George Piper Dances, a small dance company led by ex-royal ballet dancers William Trevitt and Michael Nunn. This same year, he worked with an English writer, Hanif Kureishi on a piece called “A God of Small Tales”. This collaboration set the groundwork for his second full-length dance, “ma” with his expanded company of now seven dancers. This dance is noted as his most ambitious project to date, he performed classical Kathak material in a Contemporary work for the first time, and also included text again provided by Hanif Kureishi.

            One of his largest collaboration pieces was “zero degrees” from 2005. Himself and choreographer/performer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui collectively choreographed and performed the duet. Music was provided by Mercury Award winner Nitin Sawhney and lighting by Mikki Kunttu. The Turner prize-winning sculptor Antony Gormley created life-sized casts of Khan and Cherkaoui, seemingly turning the duet into a quartet.

            In 2008, Khan collaborated with the National Ballet of China and composer Nitin Sawhney to create “bahok”, premiered in Beijing. Soon after, he created a duet including Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche. Philip Sheppard composed music and Anish Kapoor created the visual design.
Here is an image of (from left to right) Anish Kapoor, Akram Khan, Juliette Binoche, and Philip Sheppard, who also composed for Khan's "A God of Small Tales", "In-I", and "Sacred Monsters".

            Khan gathered a variety of performers and artists from the East and West to create his piece, “Vertical Road” in 2010. His goal was to bring to the table a wide range of cultural traditions and dance roots. This theme continued in “Gnosis”. World-class musicians accompanied the performance from India, Japan, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. Fang-Yi Sheu also joined the production as a guest artist in 2011. His most recent production, currently still touring, is “DESH”. It is a full-length modern dance theater solo inspired by his homeland of Bangladesh. In this piece, Khan collaborates with Tim Yip; a visual designer so received an Oscar for his scenography in the film, “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”. Also on board was award winning lighting designer, Michael Mulls, composer Jocelyn Pook and co-writer Kathika Nair. DESH means 'homeland', and is an intimate and epic solo performed by Khan himself. DESH explores fragility in the face of natural forces, and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the rhythms of labour, in dream and story, and the transformation and survival.
Here is a clip of the powerful performance.

            After going through the tremendous amount of work Khan has created over almost 15 years of choreographic history, it is evident he enjoys collaborating. I admire Khan’s usage of traditional artists such as sculptors, as well as composers and other dancers and choreographers.  His works have excelled and remain extremely innovative, by having additional expertise and creativity in a variety of fields.