VERTICAL ROAD
US TOUR
October 2012
5 & 6 –Royce Hall, UCLA Live, Los Angeles, CA
10 – Irvine Barclay Theatre, Irvine, CA
12 – Mondavi Center, UC Davis, CA
14 – Granada Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA
17 – Arlene Schnitzer Theatre, Portland, OR
20 – Byham Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
23 & 24 – The Rose Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Akram Khan Dance Company journeys across boundaries to create uncompromising artistic narratives. It produces thoughtful, provocative and ambitious dance productions for the international stage. Akram Khan takes human themes and works with others to take them to new and unexpected places – embracing and working with other cultures and disciplines.
The dance language in each production is rooted in Akram Khan’s classical Kathak and modern dance training and continually evolves to communicate ideas that are intelligent, courageous and new, bringing with it international acclaim and recognition as well as artistic and commercial success.
“Sacred Monsters” is a public dialogue in speech and motion between two artists supremely skilled in different forms of classical dance — artists who share as well a long commitment to contemporary expression. It brings together dancer-choreographer Akram Khan, a master of kathak, one of India’s more brilliant classical idioms, and Sylvie Guillem, a ballet star famed for her technique and daring.
Their 70-minute performance Wednesday in the UCLA Live series in Royce Hall represented not only a starry novelty act but also an affirmation — exactly when we needed it — that cultural isolation can be shattered, that East and West can happily coexist and grow productively from person-to-person exchange Lewis Segal, LA Times
(North American Premiere)
February/March 2010
TOUR DATES 2011
9-Feb Irvine Barclay Theatre
12-Feb Arts Power! UC San Diego
16-Feb Arts & Lectures, UC Santa Barbara
Feb 18, 19 & 20 Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco
24-Feb Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts, Detroit
Feb 26, 27 & 28 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
3-Mar University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
Royal Festival Hall choreographer in residence Akram Khan teams up with the celebrated talents of Anish Kapoor (set design) and Nitin Sawhney (composer) to present his company’s first full length evening work KAASH (Hindi word for “if”). “Hindu Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction” are the starting points for this new work. Danced by a strong international cast of five performers, KAASH continues Akram Khan’s quest to build bridges between the worlds of contemporary dance and the Indian classical dance form Kathak.
After it’s premiere in May 2002, the London press was unanimous in its praise:
The Guardian 13 May 2002
thelondonpaper, UK
19/09/08
“this meditation on love and obsession… is straightforward, honest and full of humour…The dancing is the star of the show; Khan is incredible, throwing himself against walls, the floor, and Binoche…displaying a confident physicality and looking as if she is having a ball…By the end (it) achieves exactly what they set out to do.”
whatsonstage, UK
19/09/08
“Catch the ever luminous La Binoche in this intriguing piece…
an exploration, through words, music and dance, of love.”
Binoche’s strength is…in her constant habitation of the character from
vulnerable teenager to ferocious lover. Expression floods her whole form
and reaches out to us; something you just can’t train for.”
“With a vital wall Anish Kapoor makes a deceptively simple set that is
stunningly lit by Michael Hulls, and Philip Shepphard’s fusion soundtrack is
excellent; ebbing and flowing but never intrusive, shadowing the
dancing tides of submission, dominance, violence and affection.”
“you can almost hear the sensual static as the pair loop and curve,
like two magnets, resisting each other then snapping tight.”
Evening Standard, UK, 19/09/08
“If we had to say in one word what we wish for our creation In-I, we would choose the word ‘dare’. If we could add two more, we would definitely choose: ‘the new’. Daring the new is why we said yes to each other. But can we reach each other? Can we try and get close? Conflicts, fear, needs and hopes can be walls that we have to face. However, in between two people, there’s a third, the space in between the two, and it is in the search for the third that we discover who we really are. If the Greeks had 14 words to describe different ways of loving, how many do we experience?”
Juliette Binoche & Akram Khan
May 2008
Co-directed and performed by
Juliette Binoche & Akram Khan
