Rhapsody of grace and energy

AKRAM KHAN

Fixing space. Through movement that is at the same time full of grace and energy, through agility. At a deeper level, this is what Akram Khan does. For the record though, he is a contemporary dancer who has his roots in Kathak. In Chennai recently, to perform in Arangham Trust's The Other Festival, Akram, set the stage a-whirring, gliding as he did, in between invisible strings drawn across the stage. `` Dance is all about feeling, about impulse,'' this Bangladeshi British dancer tells Ramya Kannan, with just that faintest hint of an accent.

HOW CAN a man so well qualified, much honoured be as unassuming as Akram is? Is it because ``he is like that only''? But ask him about his glaring lack of ego, he pauses a bit before he says, ``It is because of Kathak.'' Pause again. ``Also contemporary dance''. Here then, is one artist who genuflects before the sublime rhythms of the art of dance, allowing himself to be drawn into the vortex.

And then, there is his honesty. He is extremely frank about himself, his art, his entry into the medium. Born into a Bangladeshi family settled in Britain, to a mother who was a Bengali folk dancer, perhaps he really had no other choice.

He was schooled in the 500 year old Indian tradition of Kathak dance, under the tutelage of the renowned artiste, Sri Pratap Pawar.

Early on, he appeared in Peter Brook's Mahabaratha for the Royal Shakespeare Company, an experience he still recalls with extreme thankfulness. He went on to train at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds. Other techniques he has studied include classical ballet, Graham, Cunningham, Alexander,Release, Contact, Improvisation and Physical Theatre.

To talk about everything notable that Akram did would be next to impossible. Let it suffice to say that he has performed to critical acclaim at key festival across UK, USA, Delhi and Mumbai. In October 1999, Akram Khan was awarded the Jerwood Choreography award in London. Still in his twenties, he has been selected from a group of equally acclaimed choreographers to participate in a six month choreographic laboratory in Brussels. Apparently, Anita Ratnam of Arangham Trust was so captivated by his dance, word has it that she stormed into the British Council office and said simply ``I want Akram''.

The Other Festival did get Akram. A contemporary dancer who came to Chennai with a negative frame of mind. That is Akram being honest again. ``It is true. I was apprehensive about going contemporary in South India that is devoted to the classical form,'' he says, adding that he was pleasantly surprised by an appreciative Chennai audience.

The apprehension arose from his belief that contemporary dance is an extremely democratic form that questions stereotypes, established norms and traditions. ``We will have ask those questions, think and perhaps even develop a style,'' he believes. Will that not lead to chaos? ``Of course it will. But I think Chaos is beautiful''. ``What excites me most is the process of figuring out your own explanation about what happens on stage'' he says. That becomes an act of creation all by itself.

`Rush' is his next creation. A performance that is based on `free fall' and the adrenalin that courses through a sky diver as he falls. His new outfit, the `Akram Khan company' (``I couldn't think up any other name'') consisting of dancers from different cultural backgrounds is currently working on this production which examines whether `stillness is really still'. Will Rush come to Chennai? ``I hope to be coming here again too'. But this young dancer's feet will be busy, booked as he is, right up to 2002.

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