A shooting star

A DYNAMO of energy unleashed on the stage, Akram Khan, when he is dancing singes the mind of the viewer with the explosive strength of his power-packed movements. Bangladeshi by origin and brought up in the United Kingdom, Akram Khan is one of the happiest manifestations of multi-culturism. Hailed as the New Shooting Star of Contemporary Dance in the West, this dancer is already booked for shows right up to 2002!

A traditionally trained Kathak dancer under Pratap Pawar in the U.K., with a classical ballet background, in addition, Akram strayed into Contemporary Dance to avoid the ubiquitous route to a degree in medicine or engineering being thrust on the teenager by anxious parents. That he had a natural inclination for Contemporary Dance began to dawn on him while training in the College of Contemporary Dance at Leeds, U.K. Enriching his technique and vocabulary, Akram put himself through the entire gamut of training in the different schools of Graham, Merce Cunningham and Alexander along with the study of aspects like Release, Contact Improvisation and Physical Theatre.

In 1999, while still in his twenties, he was conferred the Jerwood Choreographic award and in January last, he was selected from amongst a host of well-known choreographers, to participate in a six month choreographic laboratory called the X Group in Brussels. This residency, according to the dancer proved crucial in his developing awareness of how Kathak and Modern Dance were connected.

Soon Akram was pushing beyond orthodox reference points of Kathak in the urge to discover what lay beyond, and found himself in a challenging field of movement with compelling new possibilities. Dialectics of East and West, Tradition and Modern, have ceased to exist in this land of innovation and discovery, unmapped by boundaries of geography, culture or time.

In his production, ``Fix,'' a work commissioned by the Jerwood award, Akram Khan used South Bank Show award winner Nitin Sawneys score with both western modern, and eastern raga-based music to compose movements combining speed with stillness. Inspired by the Whirling Dervishes and Sufism, it was energy, counter-pointing meditative silence.

Watching Akram with a group of about 30 dancers in a workshop at the Chennai British Council, the event marking the start of a movement for a loosely knit group for dance interaction as part of what is called the Culture Cafi, one was struck by the easy communication between conductor and participants. With no airs about him, and with his general affability and sunny temperament, the atmosphere soon thawed. Akram talked of his approach to a work, in which the choreography was guided by imagining the body being manipulated by sixteen strings in space. Imagine, after closing your eyes, the feel of the body jumping off a plane and hurtling through space to the ground. Feel the body filled with sand, with particles dripping slowly through holes in the fingers. It is this type of looseness, which guided the kind of movement I devised for Loose in Flight.' he says. He then talks about the risk taking element in choreography, by preventing a falling body from completely toppling, through physical manoeuvres which transform into improvised movement patterns. His own very short demonstration of fall on fall being checked at the nick of time, to become graceful dance, like living dangerously all the time, was sufficient to show what a superbly centered and trained body he had and how quick were its responses. Looking at some of the carefully falling bodies of the dancers, Akram pleaded ``please, no pretense.'' It has to be a real uncontrolled falling body which is steadied. He talks of the honesty of the body of its integrity, which is instantly exposed by any sham.

Akram does not believe in pre-conditions as one works on exploring new movement. I learnt from Peter Brooke how being pedestrian can sometimes be more effective than the alert perfectly poised presence. The element of surprise in the unexpected adds a special touch to all action. Akram illustrates his point with a story, which acts as a metaphor, from the book called the ``Fifth Mountain.'' Elijah climbing to the top of mountains where he expects to meet God, is disappointed. When lightning and thunder open a cave, which swallows every thing and all is gone, with a quiet descending on the world, he finally sees God. Things happen at unexpected moments, says Akram. Laya and the arithmetic of rhythm in Kathak have certainly given Akrams body a feel for timing, very essential to all movement. The ascending and descending arithmetic of rhythmic patterns, the changing accents in fractional intervals of a time cycle, are all aspects inspiring new ideas in choreography. Looking into his precious book of notes, Akram finally sets an exercise for the students to try out five different movements each set to a tisram cycle of 12 beats. Calling them ABCDE he then asks for combinations of AE, BD, CA or whatever, and shows how patterns of movement slowly emerge. He humbly remarks after the exercise ``You are very good. I learn a lot from all this.''

Nothing if not frank, Akram agrees with me when I say that the quality of energy required in Kathak and Modern Dance is not the same. That being so, how do you combine these disciplines? Did the stylised body training in Kathak prove a problem while doing Modern Dance? To start with yes, but soon he overcame it. He chimes with my comment that it is his Kathak, which now shows a new quality of energy, not seen in traditional dancers of this style. True, but even now if I lay off Modern Dance for about two or three months, my Kathak begins to look like what Guruji does,'' he says.

Akram continues: ``I am unable to understand the usual question put by all Asians, Do you consider yourself an eastern or western choreographer? I don't Think of dance like that. I never categorise. For me movement is just that movement. I dont attach any nationality to it. I keep a little room for improvisation even in my structured pieces. Otherwise they become robotic, rendered in the same fashion over and over again.''

Do you tinker with and change classical items?

``Never. Not even in the concert format do I change any element.''

How is that? It is my choice. No compulsion. Tukras, tihais, tatkar, all are rendered exactly as taught by my guru.

What comes through strong and clear is not just the discipline in mind and body, but also the ability to remain un-spoilt despite name and fame, with a modesty, which is striking and most becoming. Is that eastern or western? I wonder.

Akram Khan does not categorise dance as East or West. For him it is just a flow of movement, as he expresses to

LEELA VENKATARAMAN.

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