Posts Tagged ‘akram khan company’

South Asian dance at the festival

Dance from Southern Asia plays a more prominent role in this year’s festival, with performances and workshops from that part of the world featuring every week.

The dancers of Javanak performed in Hereford on the opening day and are involved in Utopia, the international folk dance spectacular dominating Victoria Square over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Akram Khan Company’s ‘Gnosis‘ brought Kathak to Town Hall this week. We recorded an interview with Akram Khan while he was in Birmingham earlier this year for British Dance Edition.

This year sampad are celebrating their twentieth anniversary as well as the 60th anniversary of the Indian Republic. They’ve brought two shows to International Dance Festival Birmingham, the first from New York, the other from Delhi:

Of these shows, sampad’s Piali Ray OBE says that they:

have toured the world winning countless accolades, and represent the next generation of bright talent coming from the South Asian diaspora

The Hindu has an interview with Abhimanyu and Vidha Lal and you can see some excerpts from The Absent Lover here:

To find out more about the performances and to buy tickets, please go to www.idfb.co.uk.

Faith in dance

Dance has always played an important part in religious celebrations and, whilst religion isn’t necessarily a strong theme in the IDFB 2010 programme, its influence is present in several of the performances taking place over the remaining weeks.

Sutra by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui/Sadler’s Wells London, 28 April

The monks that feature in Sutra at The Rep tonight (and last night) come from the Shaolin Temple identified by China’s State Council as being the key national Buddhist Temple. There, they follow a strict Buddhist doctrine with Kung fu & Tai Chi forming part of their daily regime.

Outspoken Weekend, 29 April – 2 May

Supported by the British Council, this weekend, IDFB 2010 presents a range of work from Arab artists, curated by Eckhard Thiemann. Some of the works to be performed over the weekend explore politics and society in parts of the world where religion exerts a strong influence.

Gnosis by Akram Khan Company, 7 & 8 May

Kathak was a form of dance used by northern India’s nomads to tell stories from the Hindu scriptures. Those stories are still told in that way and , on 7 and 8 May, you can see Akram Khan Company’s performance of Gnosis at the Town Hall. The final act in particular has been informed by the story of Gandhari from the Mahabharata.

Our Outspoken weekend is one of the outstanding projects granted the London 2012 Inspire mark, the badge of the London 2012 Inspire programme which recognises exceptional and innovative projects inspired by the 2012 Games. Find out more about the Inspire Mark here