mid-day catches up with dancer Akram Khan to ask why he chose an account of Indian soldiers in World War 1 to end his illustrious career
Xenos, which draws its name from the Greek word for ‘stranger’, is a retelling of the horrors of World War I through the lens of an Indian soldier
For dancer and choreographer Akram Khan, who delivers his final performance as an artiste next weekend, the most intense part of the preparation was the research for his piece, which is the story of an Indian soldier who fought for the British Army in World War I.
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“Around 1.4 million colonial soldiers from around the world fought for the British empire, and, as is typical of the British empire, they just excluded them [from history]”, Khan says. “We were devastated by that, and we wanted to give a voice to the unheard, the dead.”
The performance, titled Xenos, derives its name from the narrative of Prometheus, the Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods and introduced it to mankind. Xenos symbolises rebirth and the almost disconcerting change in identity as one confronts the realities—or horrors—of a whole new life.
The performance was commissioned by UK-based 14-18 NOW, a cultural programme commissioning art performances to mark the centenary of the WWI. In Xenos, the political landscape of the War is defined by the harsh elements, glaring colours, and use of terrestrial imagery to evoke a sense of an interpersonal and external struggle.
“I wanted to create a poetic rendition of the work, rather than a literal rendition of one soldier’s narrative,” Khan explains. “If I’ve got to be literal, then I’ve got to do it differently from a politician. Art, for me, is the sweeter tongue of politics.” He adds that it’s important to portray political events in an undiluted light because as a society, we have “global dementia”.
Dancer and choreographer Akram Khan
“We choose to forget because it’s easier to forget. By forgetting, we’re repeating our mistakes,” he says. For Khan, the state of the world today is much the same as what it was in the days of the two great wars, maybe even worse. “Our mistakes need to be part of the narrative right from when we’re children, otherwise we’d keep repeating them.”
The 48-year-old Bangladeshi artiste is very vocal about history needing to be seen from the often more revealing viewpoint of those whose stories have never been heard. His own experience with history and mythology was shaped by his feminist mother’s retelling of stories from the point of view of female characters.
As an Indian classical dancer trained in the dance form Kathak for his entire life, Khan incorporates “a mindset to be fluid” in his movements and storytelling, preferring to include elements from multiple genres and ideas of thought. When asked about what made him narrow down the performance into one word, Xenos, which is a Greek word that means ‘stranger’, Khan counters, “Do you not feel like a stranger in the world right now?” He elaborates, “We’re not the owners of this earth. We are guests. Everyone feels like ‘Xenos’ right now, against political leaders, against governments, against the ones in power, against the capitalist system…we feel like strangers to our own earth.”
Xenos was chosen as the performance to mark the end of Khan’s dance career because of its connection to India. “I wanted to finish [my career] in India, especially with this work, as it’s about Indian colonial soldiers,” Khan signs off. “I’m playing an Indian classical dancer, who is thrust into the trenches of Europe, fighting a war I don’t understand.”
WHAT: Xenos, the final dance performance of artiste Akram Khan
WHEN: June 24 and June 25, 6 PM
WHERE: Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA
PRICE: Rs 500 onwards
TO BOOK: www.bookmyshow.com
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