Press Release: Akram Khan Company returns to its roots with revival of first work KAASH, Sadler's Wells 3-5 March

[Jan McNulty]

Akram Khan Company

Kaash
Sadler’s Wells EC1R 4TN
Thursday 3 - Saturday 5 March 
Performances at 7.30pm
Tickets: £12 - £32
Ticket Office: 020 8763 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

“Epic, deeply focused and grandly beautiful” – The Daily Telegraph

Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Akram Khan presents the long-awaited re-visit to his company’s first full-length work Kaash at Sadler’s Wells on Thursday 3 - Saturday 5 March, a piece created in collaboration with visual artist Anish Kapoor and composer Nitin Sawhney.

Never before performed at Sadler’s Wells, Kaash was created by Khan, Kapoor and Sawhney in 2002. This revival of the work sees Akram Khan Company return to its roots, and is performed by the company’s acclaimed cast of dancers shedding new light and energy on the piece.

 

Hindu Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction are the starting points for the work. The

title is taken from a Hindi word meaning ‘if only’, and denotes Khan’s quest to build bridges between the worlds of contemporary dance and the Indian classical dance form kathak.

 

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists working today. In just over fifteen years he has created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in the UK and abroad. Khan became a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist in 2005. 

Akram Khan Company’s newest work Until The Lions, a Sadler’s Wells co-production, opened at The Roundhouse this year (Saturday 9 - Sunday 24 January). Khan’s new choreography of Giselle will be performed by Sadler’s Wells Associate Company English National Ballet at various venues in the autumn, including Sadler’s Wells (Tuesday 15 - Saturday 19 Nov 2016). 


NOTES TO EDITORS

Akram Khan 
Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists today. In just over fifteen years he has created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in the UK and abroad. His reputation has been built on the success of imaginative, highly accessible and relevant productions such as DESH, iTMOi, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zero degrees.

An instinctive and natural collaborator, Khan has been a magnet to world-class artists from other cultures and disciplines. His previous collaborators include the National Ballet of China, actress Juliette Binoche, ballerina Sylvie Guillem, choreographers/dancers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Israel Galván, singer Kylie Minogue, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Tim Yip, writer Hanif Kureishi and composers Steve Reich, Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost.

Khan’s work is recognised as being profoundly moving, in which his intelligently crafted storytelling is effortlessly intimate and epic. Described by the Financial Times as an artist “who speaks tremendously of tremendous things”, a recent highlight of his career was the creation of a section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that was received with unanimous acclaim.

Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award), the prestigious ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele Astaire Award, the Herald Archangel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award and six Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005. He is also an Honorary Graduate of Roehampton and De Montfort Universities, as well as University of London, and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban.

Khan is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells, London and Curve Leicester.

Sadler’s Wells
Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the very best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005 it has helped to bring over 90 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and an Associate Company and nurtures the next generation of talent through hosting the National Youth Dance Company, its Summer University programme, Wild Card initiative and its New Wave Associates.

Located in Islington, north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells. 

Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 10% of its revenue from Arts Council England.

[bridiem]

Thanks Janet - I'm really looking forward to this! I haven't seen it because I only 'woke up' to Khan a few years ago, so it's great to have the opportunity now. I don't know if he'll be dancing in it himself - I hope so since there may not be many more chances to see him. But either way it should be really interesting.