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Behind the Scenes: Akram Khan

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Akram Khan

29/05/2018

BBC Radio 4 - Behind the Scenes, Akram Khan

Leading dancer-choreographer Akram Khan develops Xenos - his final full-length solo show.

As leading dancer-choreographer Akram Khan prepares for his final full-length solo show, Xenos, about Indian soldiers in World War I, Beaty Rubens follows the creative process.

Akram Khan is one of the UK's leading dancer-choreographers. As he prepares his final full-length solo show, Xenos, about Indian soldiers in World War One , Beaty Rubens follows the creative process.

Akram Khan's first professional engagement was aged 7, and at 10 he was cast by the legendary director Peter Brook in his production of the Indian epic, the Mahabharata. Now, at 43, he's announced that Xenos will be his final, full-length solo show. Xenos explores a subject close to Akram's heart - the largely unacknowledged experience of the 1.4 million Indian soldiers who fought for the British in the First World War. Telling the story of an Indian court dancer who becomes a communications engineer, laying down wires in the mud of the trenches, Xenos enables Akram to showcase both his Kathak and Contemporary repertoire. 

In the months leading up to its world premiere in Athens, Beaty Rubens has been behind the scenes to observe the creative process, speaking extensively with Akram and his talented international team. Xenos integrates live Indian and Western music and original voice archive to create a hugely powerful narrative in which the mass horrors of the trenches are brought back to life by by one sensational solo dancer. 

Featuring the music and sound design of Vincenzo Lamagna and rehearsal performances by Nina Harries, Aditya Prakash, Tamar Osbone, B.C.Manjunath and Andrew Maddick. 

Akram Khan has collaborated in the past with the French ballet sensation, Sylive Guillem, the actor Juliet Binoche and the sculptor Anthony Gormley, and performed at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics to live music from Emilie Sande. 

Presented and produced by Beaty Rubens.

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