A Homecoming for Akram Khan
I saw Akram Khan's DESH in Toronto late last year. Mesmerised, I left the theatre, my experience of the show enhanced by bumping into the performer outside the theatre. We talked; I asked him if he had plans to stage it in Bangladesh. He mentioned that given that so much of the stories are based in Bangladesh, it would make sense, but staging it is… and he shook his head indicating a near impossibility. Imagine my delight now that the impossible is about to happen September 18-19 at the Shilpakala Academy.
DESH is a Lawrence Olivier Award winning solo performance that fuses different sound, technology and dance styles. Storytelling and dance gives us compelling accounts of lives in Bangladesh, the British-Bangladeshi identity and the nostalgic tales that elders tell children. These stories range from the mystical to the exaggerated to the hilarious. "I am fascinated to search for and explore a story that addresses the tragedy and comedy of lives in Bangladesh," says Akram Khan about his show.
The show is very production heavy. Large props, installations and screens feature heavily in the show and technically, it is a feat. For this production, all the props are made locally with local materials such as bamboo instead of steel. "We are grateful to the director of the Shilpakala Academy for making the space available to us and accommodating the complexity of the design," says Robin Davies, Director, Programmes and Partnerships at British Council.
A three-way partnership between The British Council, Bengal Art Foundation and Shilpakala Academy has brought this production to us. "This is an artistic homecoming for Akram Khan and I feel privileged and honoured that he always trusted British Council to collaborate with him whenever he has travelled around the world. We thank the Bangladesh Government and Bengal Foundation who supported our efforts in bringing him home," says Eeshita Azad, Head of Arts at the British Council Bangladesh.
The show is free of charge and the way to get tickets is to enter an online competition, the details of which can be found in www.britishcountil.org. The show will also be streamed live at the Fine Arts Hall at the Shilpakala Academy and at the outdoor Teacher Student Centre in Dhaka University, weather permitting. The live streaming is to ensure that as many people as possible outside the Shilpakala Academy are able to see this remarkable event.
Bangladeshi stories rarely get centre stage in global theatres, but Akram Khan has done just that. The world has seen this story of our roots, our realities and experiences and loved it. Staging DESH in Bangladesh is very special for him and for us and time we embraced Akram and claimed him as our own.
British Council in partnership with the Bengal Foundation brings Akram Khan's solo dance performance DESH to Shilpakala Academy September 18-19, 2014
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