The 10th Meet in Beijing Arts Festival
bahok  Akram Khan Company - FAREWELL, IN BEIJING
China tour presented by Milky Way Arts & Communications Ltd., company

Time: 7:30pm, 14 & 15 May 2010
Venue: Meilanfang Theatre, Beijing
Ticket: RMB580, 380, 280, 180, 120, 80
Ticket Booking: 010-65516930/06
www.mwacc.com

bahok group (photo by LiuYang)

Artistic director/Choreographer   Akram Khan
Composer  Nitin Sawhney
Lighting Designer  Fabiana Piccioli
Set conceived by  Fabiana Piccioli, Sander Loonen and Akram Khan
Dramaturge Guy CoolsticAkramp

“an exhilarating evening of humour,charm and extraordinary tenderness”  THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

“Bahok has atmosphere, humour, poetry and heart”  THE INDEPENDENT

“Performed by Khan's own kathak-contemporary company plus classically-trained dancers, Bahok is “both a fine advertisement for contemporary dance – and for the expansive qualities of multiculturalism”   THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Group circle (Photo by Liu Yang)

Bahok, named after the Bengali word meaning ‘carrier’, explores the ways in which the body carries national identity and a sense of belonging. Khan’s dancers come from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds – Chinese, Korean, Indian, South African and Spanish – and this rich mix of both spoken and dance language pushes the boundaries of movement vocabulary.

Khan once again joins forces with long-time collaborator and multi award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney, who has created an original score for bahok.

World Premiere: 25 January, 2008 in Beijing

Shanell Winlock (Photo by Liu Yang)

I feel we live in a society that is evolving at great speed, and it is because of this momentum of shifting that we still call it a ‘contemporary’ society. All traditions were once contemporary; it is just a matter of time when something is regarded as old or part of a tradition. However, I believe that the role of the performing arts is critical to the present contemporary society, primarily, because the performing arts are becoming more and more like a mirror, a place to reflect the world we live in. I remember once saying to a critic that my work is pure, it does not reflect my personal, political or religious opinions; the bodies that I present on stage are neutral. Yet, over the years it has become clearer to me that I was wrong; the body is never neutral, it is not a machine where you can erase information and start again. The day the body comes to life it forms an opinion; all through childhood we imitate everyone around us, we even absorb information from our surroundings quicker than we would do as adults. So I now believe that the work created in the performing arts, consciously or sub-consciously, strongly reflects the world we live in, through the artist’s eye. T he stage is usually a place where I can reveal not only an image from my head, but also what I feel is missing or needed in the contemporary society around me, but somehow, I believe it is not about me preaching to others of what is missing in their lives but mostly, what is missing in my own... so the whole approach to my work is about acquiring new knowledge by reviewing the old knowledge, because there is something in the old knowledge that the new does not have, for example, I turn to my tradition all the time, because the old knowledge contains the information regarding spirituality, whilst the new knowledge has a more scientific approach. I always say, the old society lives in a temple, the new one lives is in a science-lab, but what excites me is the idea of bringing together these two worlds, in order to make a ‘new’ place. I do feel that the contemporary society that I live in, allows this ‘new’ place to exist and to be tested, conversely, I also do believe, that the old society may not have been equally as forthcoming towards this ‘new’ place…

- Akram Khan, February 2008

The dancers are the writers of the show.They are the ones who bring the source material. We search for the little stories that they bring with them and exploring these short stories of each individual, we find a bigger story. That’s what fascinates me, to explore these personal stories of these individuals on stage, in order to discover and reveal a more universal one.

Akram Khan
Artistic Director/ Choreographer

Akram Khan is one of the most acclaimed choreographers of his generation working in Britain today. Born in London into a family of Bangladeshi origin in 1974, he began dancing at the age of seven. He studied with the great Kathak dancer and teacher Sri Pratap Pawar, later becoming his disciple. He began his stage career at the age of 14, when he was cast in Peter Brook’s legendary production of Mahabharata, touring the world between 1987 and 1989 and appearing in televised version of the play broadcast in 1988.

Following later studies in contemporary dance and a period working with Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker’s Brussels based X-Group project, he began presenting solo performances of his work in the 1990s, maintaining his commitment to the classical kathak repertoire as well as modern work. Among his best-known solo pieces are: Polaroid Feet (2001), Ronin (2003) and Third Catalogue (2005).

In August 2000, he launched his own Company which has provided him with a platform for innovation and an increasingly diverse range of work through collaboration with artists from other disciplines, ranging from theatre, film, visual arts, music to literature.

As Choreographer-in-Residence and later Associate Artist at the Southbank Centre, he presented a recital with Pandit Birju Maharaj and Sri Pratap Pawar; and A God of Small Tales, a piece for mature women for which he collaborated with writer Hanif Kureishi. He remained an Associate Artist at the Southbank Centre until April 2005, the first non-musician to be afforded this status, and is currently an Associate Artist at Sadler’s Wells.

Akram latest work In-I is a collaboration with Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche, visual design by Anish Kapoor and music composition by Philip Sheppard. It premiered in September 2008 at the National Theatre in London, and undertook a major international tour. Akram Khan was also invited by Kylie Minogue to choreograph a section of her new Showgirl concert, which opened in Australia in November 2006, and toured to the UK in January 2007.

Akram Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Jerwood Foundation Choreography Award (2000); ‘Outstanding Newcomer to Dance Award’ from both the Dance Critics' Circle (2000) and Time Out Live (2000); ‘Best Modern Choreography’ from the Dance Critics' Circle (2002); the International Movimentos Tanzpreis (2004) for ‘Most Promising Newcomer in Dance’; a South Bank Show Award (2005);  the 2005 Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards for Outstanding Male or Female Artist (modern) and was nominated for a Nijinsky Award for Best Newcomer (2002).  More recently, he was awarded the 2007 ‘Excellence in International Dance’ Award by the International Theatre Institute, and Best Male Dancer in the prestigious annual Helpmann Awards held in Sydney, Australia in 2007. He has been nominated again for this award for his recent performance in In-I.

In 2004, Akram received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from De Montfort University for his contribution to the UK arts community and was awarded an MBE for his services to Dance in 2005.