With ITMOI dancer-choreographer Akram Khan crawls into the head of composer Igor Stravinsky. In 1913 the première of his Le Sacre du printemps very nearly caused riots in the auditorium. No one had ever heard such music. No one had ever seen such dancing. Le Sacre du printemps became one of the most important music and dance pieces of the 20th century. 100 years later, Akram Khan is inspired by Stravinsky. He doesn’t make a choreography to his music, but asks 3 contemporary composers (Jocelyn Pook, Ben Frost and Nitin Sawney) to create new work. And then he gets to work with his 11 dancers. “I particularly focus on the idea of the human sacrifice (a woman who must dance herself to death) and the repetition from the original piece,” says Khan.
Akram Khan is one of the most prominent contemporary British choreographers and already has numerous important prizes to his name. In the past he worked together with a.o. actress Juliette Binoche, singer Kylie Minogue, choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, artist Anish Kapoor and writer Hanif Kureishi. At the Olympic Games in London he was responsible for the dance acts of the opening ceremony. He established his reputation with highly inventive, accessible and very relevant performances such as DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis and Zero Degrees.
Free buss from:
* Tournai (22/11) at 19h15 from la maison de la culture
* Villeneuve d'Ascq (22/11) at 19h15 from la rose des vents
* Valenciennes (22/11) at 18h30 from la Place Poterne
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER Akram Khan / COMPOSERS Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost / PRODUCER Farooq Chaudhry / MATERIAL DEVISED AND PERFORMED BY Kristina Alleyne, Sadé Alleyne, Ching-Ying Chien, Sung Hoon Kim, Denis ‘Kooné’ Kuhnert, Hannes Langolf, Yen-Ching Lin, TJ Lowe, Christine Joy Ritter, Catherine Schaub Abkarian and Jose Agudo / COSTUME DESIGNER Kimie Nakano LIGHTING DESIGNER Fabiana Piccioli / SCENOGRAPHER Matt Deely / DRAMATURGE Ruth Little / RESEARCHER Joel Jenkins / CHOREOGRAPHIC ASSISTANTS Andrej Petrovicˇ and Jose Agudo SET DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION Sander Loonen and Firma Smits / SOUND DESIGNER Nicolas Faure / ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Bia Oliveira / PROJECT MANAGER Céline Gaubert / Technical team on Tour / TECHNICAL COORDINATOR AND LIGHTING Richard Fagan / SOUND ENGINEER Marcus Hyde / SOUND AND SET Peter Swikker / COSTUMES AND PROPS Anne-Marie Bigby / TOUR MANAGER Marek Pomocki / Akram Khan is an Associate Artist of MC2: Grenoble and Sadler’s Wells, London in a special international co-operation / SPONSORED BY COLAS Co-produced by Sadler’s Wells London, MC2: Grenoble, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg / Produced during residency at MC2: Grenoble Supported by Arts Council England
