Britain’s most lauded Kathak performer will meet the tortured grace of a Flamenco king
A dancer of the English National Ballet performs Dust, choreographed by Akram Khan
Ever so often, the frantic cultural environment of Bengaluru makes it possible for city folk to get a taste of the truly magnificent. This Wednesday, when Britain’s most lauded Kathak performer will meet the tortured grace of a Flamenco king, to dance to a song of staggering duality at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall, then rest assured that a dust will fly. This dust that rises out of every stage on which they sweep across with their articulate limbs, Akram Khan and Israel Galván call Torobaka. Before this remarkable partnership of two dancers who need no introduction touches the city audience with their tell-tale vigour, we catch up with the man who has performed with Juliette Binoche, for Kylie Minogue and for whom a performance at the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony is only one of many feathers in the cap – Akram Khan.
Akram Khan performs Gnosis
Born in Britain to Bangladeshi parents, the dancer’s life for a bilingual Akram Khan began when he was 13 and all set to perform in Peter Brooks’ iconic production of Mahabharata. “But I think I truly realised that I wanted to be a dancer at the age of 17 or 18. I sought and found inspiration from people like my guru, my mother, Fred Astaire, Charlie Chaplin, Bruce Lee and Mohammad Ali. But the one stage experience that I am waiting for is to dance with my two-and-half-year-old daughter. Right now. she dances only when there is food around. I don’t know if she will dance with me one day,” laughs Akram, between conducting sessions of gruelling workshops.
A choreographer of distinguished excellence, among Akram’s many awards and recognitions is the MBE (Member of the British Empire ). “Awards are great when I receive them, but the second it is over, it is over. They do not matter to me when I am in my studio, thinking about the next piece of choreography. Fame makes me nervous, but the more famous you are the more dangerous the fame itself becomes. So I try to remain truthful to myself and to a select few like my mother, my wife and my producer – people who will be blunt enough to tell me if I am putting faith in the wrong kind,” says Akram who was once told by a young fan who was suffering from an illness that would take the young boy’s life, that his dance took his pain away for the moment.
In spite of performing in locations ranging from Tbilisi to Singapore, Akram remembers the heat and spirituality on the floors of the Kalakshetra, which emanate ‘something sacred’ according to him. His collaboration with the feted Flamenco dancer Israel Galván too is something sacred. Akram says, “Galvan dances a Flamenco that is not a Flamenco. While I dance a Kathak that is not Kathak. He is a solo artist while I work with many dancers. He does not speak English while I do not speak Spanish. So there was as much accidental interpretation as there was misinterpretation. Things were lost in translation and that gave us a language of our own. Torobaka emerged from this idea of the bull (toro) and the cow (vaca) in exchange.”
Brought to India by the British Council and Park Foundation, Torobaka will be performed on September 30 at the Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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