Sept 22 & 24

Sept 23

Sept 27

Sept 28, 29 & 30

Oct 3 – 8

Oct 10 – 13

Oct 17 – 20

Oct 23 – 25

Oct 26-29

Oct 30 – Nov 5

Nov 6

Nov 7-8

Nov 9  Peak Performances, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ

World Music/Crash Arts, Boston, MA

Wesleyan University, Center for the Arts, Wesleyan, CT

Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, Burlington, VT

Clarice Performing Arts Center,College Park, MD

Gammage, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Texas Performing Arts, University of Texas at Austin, TX

University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Center for the PA, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Hancher Auditorium, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Lied Center, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

Milliken Auditorium, Northwestern Michigan College, Traverse City, MI

Stuart’s Opera House, Nelsonville, OH

Michigan Theatre, University Musical Society, Ann Arbor, MI ]]> http://2luck.com/anda-union/anda-union-tour-dates/feed/ 0 http://2luck.com/akram-khan-company/vertical-road/gallery-12/ http://2luck.com/akram-khan-company/vertical-road/gallery-12/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:00:56 +0000 admin http://2luck.com/?p=842

“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

Khan and Guillem linked hands and let ripples shake their bodies. It was part dance, part struggle. At one point, Khan refused to take his partner’s hand and instead bowed his head like a bull. Without touching her, he “pushed” her away. Later they launched into a dance-fight, a robotic, hip-hop-like duet. The disjointed effect was like a strobe light without the strobe. It was all done through exquisite control of their exquisite bodies. Later, they became a single, multiarmed undulating figure as Guillem wrapped her legs around Khan.
In the past, it was the statuesque Guillem who grabbed, demanded even, our attention. Not on this night. Khan, the short “bald Krishna,” was more than a match for Guillem. He wowed us at the end with an intimate argument with himself – “Is this right?” and “Is this wrong?” – as he repeatedly tried standing up on the tops of his feet. Ouch. Laura Bleiberg, Orange County Register

The dance event, at Royce Hall, was an exhilarating exploration of the boundaries and synergy between two classical dance forms, kathak from the Mughal courts and Western ballet. “Sacred Monsters” showcased ballet and kathak disciplines separately and in combination, translating pure dance, lyrical gymnastic movement, spectacular control of bodies, consummate in the self realization of two distinct art forms blending seamlessly. India Post.com

SACRED MONSTERS brings together Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan in an exciting exploration of the boundaries between two great classical dance forms, kathak and ballet, with additional choreography by Lin Hwai-min, Artistic Director of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, Taiwan and kathak guru Guari Sharma Tripath, as well as live music specially created for them by Philip Sheppard.

Akram Khan, speaking about this project, said: “I have spent my life studying and performing kathak. It is the source of my creative process. Working with Sylvie Guillem is an exciting new challenge, giving me the opportunity to explore another classical dance language with one of its greatest exponents, and as a result, creating a situation that will unearth the things that are most often lost between the classical and modern world.”

Choreographer/ Dancer – Akram Khan
Dancer – Sylvie Guillem

Additional Choreography – Lin Hwai Min (Sylvie Guillem’s solo)
Additional Choreography – Guari Sharma Tripath (Akram Khan’s solo)

Composer/Cello – Philip Sheppard
Percussion – Coordt Linke
Violin ­ Alies Sluiter
Male Vocal – Faheem Mazhar
Female vocal – Juliette Van Peteghem

Lighting Designer – Mikki Kunttu
Set Designer – Shizuka Hariu
Costume Designer– Kei Ito

Sound Engineer – Manu Corazzini
Choreographic Assistant – Nikoleta Rafaelisova

Dramaturge – Guy Cools
Producer – Farooq Chaudhry

Co-Producers
Les Nuits de Fourviere, Lyon
Grand Theatre de la Ville, Luxembourg
Sadlers Wells, London
Missno Limited

Suported by
Arts Council, England
Bell Cohen Charitable Trust
The Quercus Trust

Structure
Full length work approx 75mins that has three distinct components. A solo by Sylvie, a classical kathak solo by Akram and duet by Akram and Sylvie. There will be live music in an environment that will recreate the informality and spontaneity of an Indian Classical kathak performance.

“Sacred Monsters. Monstres Sacres. The term was used for the first time in France in the 19th century as a nickname for the big stars of the theatre, such as Sarah Bernhardt. It marks the birth of contemporary stardom in which the icons of the arts and sports world are given divine status by their audience and the media.

Sacred Monsters is first and foremost the meeting and exchange of two such ‘stars’ of the present day dance world: Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan.

But there is also a flip side to stardom. Having to live up to the expectancies of your audience to be perfect, positive, good (at), … There is no more room for failure, imperfection, to express one’s real feelings and emotions. The divine status becomes inhuman, monstrous.

The latter being an experience we all share when as children we had to live up to the expectancies of the adults around us: our parents, our teachers, … To some extent all children are ‘sacred monsters’.”
Guy Cool – dramaturge

“This is a tribute to Sylvie, (based on my impression of her during our brief encounter): a vulnerable child and a warrior who holds her fate in her own palms.”
Lin Hwai Min

Akram Khan is one of the most gifted choreographers and dancers of his generation. He began dancing at the age of seven, studying under the great Kathak performer Sri Pratap Pawar. He presented solo performances in the 1990s, gradually developing larger scale works, drawing on his experience and training as a kathak dancer and breaking new ground in his collaborations with other artists – first seen in his first full-length work Kaash, a collaboration with Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney. His production Ma was presented at the Edinburgh Festival in 2004. In 2005 he was made an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells and zero degrees, a collaboration with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Antony Gormley and Nitin Sawhney was premiered at Sadler’s Wells in the same year. In 2005 he received an MBE for his services to Dance.

Sylvie Guillem is perhaps the world’s most celebrated ballerina. She has worked with many of the great choreographers including Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, and Mats Ek, as well as being acclaimed for her performances of the major classic works of the ballet repertoire. She was Etoile at the Paris Opera Ballet under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev before joining the Royal Ballet in 1990, where she is now Principal Guest Artist. Throughout her extensive career she has received many awards, including the Nijinsky Prize (2000), the Chevalier de Legion d’Honneur (1994), and an honorary CBE (2003).

Philip Sheppard is a virtuoso cellist and a pioneer of the electric cello. He is a professor at The Royal Academy of Music and has composed extensively for film, television and theatre and is a prolific recording artist. Philip has recently composed BBC Television’s Easter production The Manchester Passion as well as compositions for Horizon, Simon Schama’s History of Britain and Theatre de Complicite’s The Elephant Vanishes. He has recently written and recorded with Scott Walker, David Bowie, Damien Hirst, Oasis and Unkle, and appears as improvising soloist on the
soundtracks of The Business, The Virgin Queen, Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire and Hotel Rwanda.

(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

THE OzAsia Festival’s stated aim of celebrating beauty and cultural diversity could hardly be better fulfilled than in Bahok, a stunning work from the acclaimed Akram Khan Company, receiving its first Australian performances. Adelaide Now Oct 2009

“It’s the first time that Khan has choreographed a show in which he does not himself appear, and it seems likely to set a precedent. Neither he nor, indeed, his audience need worry, however, when his chosen dancers convey so much of his distinctive mercurial movement, whimsy and wisdom.” The Independent

“Khan’s choreography is adept at blending classical ballet and contemporary dance techniques, but it is the visceral speed and agility of kathak (his dance roots) that power the most amazing sections. In one, near the end, the dancers, arms frantically rotating like propellers, practically achieve lift-off. In a similar vein, Nitin Sawhney’s brilliant score taps into spiritual and corporeal energies with an equal sense of excitement and elegance.” The Times (London

bahok was originally a collaboration with the National Ballet of China, the first of its kind between a UK contemporary dance company and a state-funded national company in China. Featuring an original score by Akram Khan’s long time collaborator Nitin Sawhney, bahok brings together a new company of eight dancers from Spain, Slovakia, India, South Korea, Taiwan (Republic of China) and South Africa. In one of this globalised world’s transit zones, they come together. They try to communicate, to exchange their stories, their memories of home.

“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)

bahok premiered in Beijing in January 2008, and gained rave reviews and international acclaim on its subsequent world tour. Following this success, bahok is embarking on its second tour in 2009/2010.

This adventure began in 2006 with the National Ballet of China. At that stage all that existed was the commitment to try something new, an enthusiasm for an idea and the ambition to convert this idea into something that could be beautiful and meaningful.Needless to say there were challenges in bringing together the resources of a large flagship national ballet company with that of a small independent contemporary troupe halfway across the world. There were obvious ones such as language, culture, movement styles, availability but also less obvious ones such as the hope for reinvention, developing new expectations and reflecting inner and outer aspirations. We had to learn a lot of new rules, demand more of ourselves and develop more sophisticated means of cooperation. Our team and that of the National Ballet of China were up to this task, and I’m extremely proud of what we collectively achieved. Collaboration for us is not just a means of artistic possibility but a great opportunity to learn from other cultures and disciplines. It is through this learning that I find the greatest satisfaction. Ironically, you end up both knowing more and less about yourself at the same time, but whatever happens it stops you from remaining static, from relying on familiar information and gives you a constant sense of motion. What could be better than that? Farooq Chaudhry | Producer

Artistic director/Choreographer Akram Khan

Composer Nitin Sawhney

Dramaturge Guy Cools

Co-producers: Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, British Council, The Liverpool Culture Company with Merseyside, Dance Initiative, DanceXchange, Birmingham, Theatre de La Ville, Paris, Tanzhaus NRW Dusseldorf, National Arts Center, Ottawa,
China Now, London

US TOUR DATES

University Musical Society
University of Ann Arbor, Michigan
October 20 – 25

http://www.ums.org/s_current_season/artist.asp?pageid=534#

Penn Presents
Annenberg Center, Philadelphia
October 27 – 31

http://www.pennpresents.org/tickets/?id=72

Cal Performances
UC Berkeley
November 4 – 8

http://www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/presents/season/2009/theater/sgt.php

Mondavi Center for the Arts
UC Davis
November 11

http://www.mondaviarts.org/events/event.cfm?event_id=787&season=2009

Arts and Lectures
UC Santa Barbara
November 13 & 14

https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/Performances.aspx

The Broad Stage
Santa Monica College
November 18 – 29

http://www.thebroadstage.com/index.php/219

Massachusetts International Festival
Holyoke
December 3 – 6

http://www.mifafestival.org/?q=node/20

Pace University
New York City
December 9 – 2
www.pace.edu

North American Fall Tour 2003

“Bliss, sheer bliss”
“I can think of no better way of starting the British summer”

The Daily Telegraph

UCLA Live, Los Angeles
October 22 8pm
October 23 8pm
October 24 8pm
October 25 2pm, 8pm
October 26 1pm, 7pm
October 28 8pm
October 29 9pm
October 30 8pm
October 31 8pm
November 1 2pm, 8pm
November 2 1pm, 7pm

Minneapolis Guthrie World Stage Series
November 6 10.30am, 7.30pm
November 7 7.30pm
November 8 1pm, 7.30pm
November 9 1pm

Theater Square, Pittsburgh
November 12 7.30pm
November 13 11am, 7.30pm
November 14 7.30pm
November 15 1pm, 7.30pm
November 16 1pm

University Musical Society, Michigan
November 18 8pm
November 19 8pm
November20 8pm
November 21 8pm
November 22 2pm, 8pm
November 23 1pm, 8pm

Chicago Shakespeare Theater
November 26 2pm, 7.30pm
November 28 2pm, 8pm
November 29 2pm, 8pm
November 30 2pm
December 2 7.30pm
December 3 2pm, 7.30pm
December 4 7.30pm
December 5 8pm
December 6 2pm, 8pm
December 7 2pm
December 9 7.30pm
December 10 2pm, 7.30pm
December 11 7.30pm
December 12 8pm
December 13 2pm, 8pm
December 14 2pm

SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE ON TOUR

In fall 2011 Shakespeare’s Globe brings its unique On Tour program to the US, reviving a hit from summers 2009 and 2010: The Comedy of Errors. The travelling players breathe new life into one of Shakespeare’s best loved comedies with a stripped down style, delivering theatre at its bawdy, brilliant best.

Shakespeare’s Globe on Tour reinvents Elizabethan touring theatre for the 21st century. Using a stage design inspired by images from the time, the Globe’s travelling players recreate all the fun and excitement of early theatre. Just as with the old King’s Men, they don’t perform in theatres but in a plethora of picturesque and historically resonant settings.

“The Globe was born out of a touring company culture, and that culture remained vital to it while it flourished. We are delighted to be exploring again the tradition of taking Shakespeare into non-theatrical spaces.”

Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe

FROM THE AUDIENCES:

‘The performance is one I will never forget’

….Rebecca Day, Leeds Castle, Kent.

‘It was truly fabulous. So stimulating, it almost changes you as a person’

Sylvia Hope, Richmond, Yorks.

FROM THE PRESS:

“…bursting with physical energy and touching realism, passion, intelligence and promise.”

The Scotsman

“… with tight, fluent team-work and much nifty doubling, the play is brought to muscular life by just eight actors.”

The Independent

FROM THE VENUES:

“An unmitigated success!”

Victoria Wallace, Managing Director of Leeds Castle

“We really enjoyed having [the show] at Lydiard Park. Fantastic performance and lots of excellent feedback from the audience.”

Emma Valentine, Lydiard Park, Swindon

ABOUT THE PLAY

Take one pair of estranged twins (both called Antipholus) and one pair of twin servants (both called Dromio), keep them in ignorance of each other and throw them into a city with a reputation for sorcery and you have the chief ingredients for theatrical chaos. One Antipholus is given gold in the street and invited to dinner by a woman who thinks she’s his wife; the other is barred from his own house and rebuffed by his jeweller. Caught in between, the Dromios are soundly beaten for disobeying each other’s orders.

Fast-paced, hilarious and seemingly irreverent, the young William Shakespeare explores themes in this comedy that recur again and again in his later work; mistaken identity, coincidence and the importance of family.

Available for US touring November/December 2011

The story of the seven musicians of Mnozil Brass began 15 years ago, when they –
university students at the time – regularly met in the bar & restaurant “Mnozil” in Vienna after their classes. The insane mix of music and entertainment took MNOZIL BRASS round the globe – Wherever the seven musicians enter the stage they are met with wild enthusiasm by audiences and critics alike. “La Crème de la Crème“, the new program of MNOZIL BRASS, offers highlights of the last one-and-a-half decades, presenting the best and most beautiful pieces from the MNOZIL BRASS repertoire.

“A terrific achievement in musical performance and acting…”

Salzburger Nachrichten

“An ensemble with a difference! This ensemble entertains audiences with a superb blend of virtuoso musicianship, unusual concert items and off-beat humour. If you want to know what to expect, expect the unexpected.” 

  British Bandsman



“These musicians are absolutely brilliant on their instruments which you almost don’t realize because you’re laughing so hard.  This is supreme and high-quality entertainment.”

Niederösterreichische Nachrichten

Artist Website: www.mnozilbrass.at