A Conversation with Akram Khan
By Leena Khan

Dancer and choreographer Akram Khan is taking Indian classical dance to bold new levels. His distinct style has been called “Contemporary Kathak” – a term of art describing his extraordinary ability to merge the classical with the contemporary, resulting in a new genre of dance which defies all categorization. Khan’s departure from the classical to the contemporary is innovative and daring, and is paving the way for a new a generation of choreographers and dancers.

Akram Khan began his dance training as a child in the Kathak tradition, a North Indian style of dance which means “storytelling.” Kathak is characterized by rhythmic footwork, spinning, subtle facial expressions and intricate hand movements. Kathak’s origins can be traced back to the Kathakas, male dancers who used mime, dance and gesture in bringing life to Hindu epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana and the Puranas of Sanskrit scripture. Under the patronage of the Mughal rulers, Kathak moved from the temples to the courts, gradually developing into a more stylized art form through its fusion of Hindu and Muslim cultures. Thus Kathak as performed in the courts became a blending of themes from the Hindu epics, alongside the traditions of Persian and Urdu poetry patronized by the Mughals.

The evolution and growth of Kathak continues today with the choreography and dance of Akram Khan. In ‘Ma,’ Khan is the enigmatic storyteller in a performance originally inspired by novelist Arundhati Roy’s essays on Indian farmers forcibly ejected from their lands. ‘Ma’ is an exploration of the duality which exists in the world around us: life and death, belonging and alienation, masculine and feminine, sacred and profane. It is a stunning performance marked by complicated footwork, rapid spinning followed by sudden stillness, inverted posturing of the dancing body and slicing hand gestures. While ‘Ma’ is a contemporary performance, Khan’s Kathak training is evident throughout the performance through his facial expressions, breathtaking spins and intricate footwork.

The predominantly female ensemble in ‘Ma’ frequently appears in inverted upside-down positions, urging the audience to view and question their surroundings from an alternative vantage point. The performance is augmented by an impressive musical ensemble: vocalist Faheem Mazhar, B C Manjunath on percussion, Natalie Rozario on cello and Lisa Mallet on flute. The soulful voice of Mazhar lingers in the air long after the song has ended. With written text by Hanif Kureishi and music by Riccardo Nova, ‘ma’ is a complex performance that gives us insight into the human condition through movement, storytelling, song and symbolism.

‘Ma’ was performed at the Rose Theatre at Lincoln Center in New York on April 26, 28 and 29. The Akram Khan Dance Company returns to New York in October 2006 to perform the Brooklyn Academy of Music, along with a host of special events in celebration of Composer Steve Reich’s 70th birthday. See website for details: www.akramkhancompany.net

LK: Can you speak on the themes of duality which are evident throughout your work?
AK: While ‘ma’ is a highly feminine work, I wanted to show that the feminine and masculine exists in all of us. Between the duality of masculine and feminine, life and death is the moment of truth and honesty, the point of transference. It is the space where the divine exists. Kathak also possesses this duality – extreme movement to sudden stillness. Even after stillness, there is still a lingering movement, an echo. The stage is a temple – a place where science and spirit intersect.

LK: Is it important for you to reconcile notions of duality in your work?
AK: No, not really. I’ve always been fascinated by opposites, science and spirit, tradition and the contemporary. It not chaos, but ordered chaos. Tradition for me is the center, and contemporary is where my body now goes. The stage is like a science lab, and my work becomes a fusion of science and spirit.

LK: The dancers in ‘ma’ were frequently in forward-bending, inverted positions. Can you explain this significance?
AK: These positions are metaphors for the world being turned upside down, and are in part inspired by the legend of the baobob tree. I think of roots, the part of a tree we don’t see, which for me is the most interesting part. The interconnectedness of all life is reflected in a tree’s roots. When we see the world from this position, we see that we are all connected, the Jew to the Palestinian, to the Indian. But the reality gets so twisted. This [inverted] position also holds a personal for me. During visits to Bangladesh as a child, I would hang upside-down from a tree in my grandmother’s courtyard. Hanging upside-down would clear my thoughts, and I discovered that this was the most natural and comfortable position.

LK: How, if at all, has ‘ma’ changed since it was first performed in 2004?
AK: The piece was inspired by Arundhati Roy’s essay on displaced Indian farmers. It’s taken a while for the piece to evolve, and the story has changed both structurally and in meaning. I began to see myself as Vyasa in the Mahabharata, where I wanted to tell a story, but also take a step back and allow the voice of the dancer to emerge. Dance is very intuitive and is about giving people space. Each dancer had a story and I wanted her voice to be heard. I have failed if I become the voice of Akram Khan.

LK: At what point in your career as a dancer did you decide to take a departure from classical Indian kathak to the contemporary form?
AK: I started to discover my voice when I was around 23 years old. As a child, I learned kathak under a traditional student – guru relationship. I was not allowed to speak or question. When I discovered contemporary dance, I felt liberated, as if I had finally found my voice. Yet I can never deny my kathak roots. Kathak is my center and my home and I will always celebrate it. Contemporary dance has become the journey away from home.

LK: Can you speak on your collaborative work with other artists?
AK: Once you have a dance company, there the danger of the work becoming too cyclical and formulaic. I want to break the cycle and go in the direction of the unexpected. I go in the opposite direction of what people expect of me. That’s why I’m more drawn to collaborations, than company work, which allows me to stay true to my work. I’ve collaborated with sculptor Anish Kapoor and composer Nitin Sawney on Kaash and Hanif Kureishi on ‘ma’. I’ve been very fortunate to have collaborated with so many talented artists at such a young age.

LK: Where do you see yourself in five years?
AK: Although I have various projects scheduled for the next five years, I like to not know where I’ll be five years from now. It’s scary to know where one will be in five years. I’m currently working on a number of projects including one with French ballerina Sylvie Guillem called ‘Sacred Monsters’.

LK: What inspires you?
AK: I get a lot of inspiration from good writing, films sculpture. The work of directors Wong Kar-Wei, Pedro Almodovar, Satyajit Ray, Hanif Kureishi, Salman Rushdie have all have been sources of inspiration.

I have to go downhill before inspiration comes. When I’m at a breaking point, a dead end, when I’ve lost everything, I get hope. A sense of struggle gives me strength. I’m more interested in being in an unfamiliar place than a familiar one. When I’m starting from nothing is when inspiration comes.

LK: Starting from nothing takes tremendous courage.
AK: It does take courage. Starting from nothing is a fragile place, a place of vulnerability, but from it comes tremendous power. I’m more interested in exploring the unstructured form in dance because it’s the unknown, and for me that’s the seat of creativity. If all I’m seeing in dance is the technical, I see a dancer’s fear. They are hiding behind the form because they feel weak. Dance is not about being a trained machine.

LK: Do you think there is a growing trend in dance from the classical to the modern?
AK: Contemporary dance is financially more rewarding, and many dancers are going in this direction for that reason. They are rejecting their classical roots which is very sad. Tradition may be old, but it’s sacred. It’s who I am, and I can never deny my roots. I can hope that what we are doing today will one day become a tradition.

Images courtesy Akram Khan

Published May 28, 2006