Akram Khan’s Dance Creation Journey – a sharing session in Hong Kong
- Elspeth Chan
- Apr 14
- 6 min read
Text: William Chan
Translator: Elspeth Chan
Editor’s Note (dance journal/hk)
In early December 2024, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts conferred Honorary Awards on ten outstanding individuals, recognizing their significant contributions to the performing arts, the cultural industry, and the Academy's development. Among the recipients was internationally renowned choreographer Akram Khan. The Academy invited Khan to visit Hong Kong to attend the ceremony. Alongside the event, a special lecture by Khan was organized, offering students and alumni the opportunity to engage closely with the master. This article highlights key excerpts from the lecture.
Renowned contemporary dance artist Akram Khan may have recently stepped back from performing on stage, but he has never ceased creating and continues to leverage his influence to build diverse platforms dedicated to nurturing the next generation of dance artists. In December 2024, an Honorary Fellowship was conferred on him by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Not only did he attend the ceremony in person, he also took the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with the academy's faculty and students. During this interaction, he shared how his cross-cultural upbringing has influenced his creative approach and artistic vision, as well as his observations and advice for the new generation of dancers.
Growing Up in a Mixed Cultural Environment
Khan describes his background as complex, being born in London with British nationality but Bangladeshi heritage. His parents fled their homeland of Bangladesh in the early 1970s to escape civil unrest, starting a new life in London. Khan views second-generation Bangladeshi immigrants like himself as living ‘cultural museums’: a group of older generation ‘aunties’ kept teaching them traditional dances and old songs, hoping to preserve Bangladeshi culture through them. Interestingly, these aunties had no formal music or dance training, and Khan humorously notes that the instruction he received was quite poor. However, the focus was not on technique but the underlying meaning of the traditions, marking Khan's first encounter with dance.
In his childhood, Khan's family lived above his father's Indian restaurant. His mother, who worked at a record company, often brought home various pop music albums. Their small living room was filled with the sound of both Bollywood film music and Western pop songs. Khan recalls finding this confusing at first but he and his sister gradually adapted to the cultural mix, finding balance over time. The neighbourhood was diverse, with families from China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Nigeria. This cultural melting pot shaped Khan's worldview and fostered an open attitude towards different cultures. Nevertheless, the experience that truly broadened Khan's horizons and helped him recognize his talents was his participation in theatre master Peter Brook's* touring production of The Mahabharata as a teenager.
Learning the Creative Process from Brook
At just 13 years old and with no formal performance training, Khan joined a year-and-a-half-long tour with the production, and this experience with the touring company became his intensive masterclass. The Mahabharata lasted for nine hours, performed in three three-hour segments from evening until dawn of the following day. Khan was selected to join the cast, which included world-renowned master performers, due to his exceptional physical stamina and movement skills. This experience transformed Khan, who was initially afraid of speaking, making him into a more relaxed performer. While still not fully trusting in spoken words, he recognized the importance of storytelling and learned how to approach conveying complex emotions and narratives through his trusted physical bodily expression.
Khan openly acknowledges Brook's profound influence on his creative approach. He generally dedicates at least three years to creating a new work:
The first year is a ‘hunting and gathering’ period, collecting all relevant materials and intuitively related elements.
The second year is devoted to playful experimentation, divided into stages. Khan usually works for three weeks at a time, followed by a month-long break.
The third year is fully committed to the creation itself.
Khan admits the length of this process is a luxury which is not typically feasible for most productions. However, when resources allow, he invests heavily in the creative process, acknowledging his slower pace of creation. On the other hand, the selection of dancers often begins two years before the project premiere, making the dancers integral co-creators of the final work.
Understanding Rules to Find True Freedom
Regarding requirements for dancers, Khan identifies two essential abilities: collaborative skills as learned from Peter Brook, and individual technique. He explains that traditional Indian dance taught him about collaboration while also providing a ‘frame’, similar to ballet. Khan emphasizes that confinement within a frame isn't necessarily negative, citing his Kathak teacher's strict demands for precision in movement, where each posture has a fixed form, firmly locking the body in place. Khan explains that dancers must have a profound understanding of these structures in order to transcend them and find freedom within them. He asserts that to master a form, one must thoroughly understand it; to improvise well, one must clearly understand the rules; and to achieve true freedom, one must emerge from confinement.
Khan often discusses improvisation with fellow choreographers Hofesh Shechter and Crystal Pite. They have a profound interest in the process of improvisation, particularly when reviewing thousands of improvised audition videos. He notes that the first few videos usually showcase the impressive physical abilities of young dancers. However, by the tenth, eleventh or twelfth video, movements become similar, often clearly improvised for the sake of improvisation. During live auditions, these dancers typically display individual skills to impress the selection panel but lack communication and collaborative abilities. Khan observes that it's difficult to discern how they might co-create with others in a performance setting.
Reflecting on One's Relationship with Dance
Khan emphasizes that each member of his company needs to possess exceptional skills, not necessarily in ballet, but in various forms of dance or performance. He views them not merely as dancers, but as artists who delve into profound questions, focusing more on their relationship with art than on the artistic activity itself. Their concern extends beyond technique to understanding their personal connection with it and how to find their unique voice within that skill set.
Khan never considered himself naturally gifted in dance. His sister, four years younger, was not only academically advanced but also possessed the innate physical qualities of a dancer. As a child, he found it embarrassing to be in beginner dance classes while she was in advanced ones. However, he points out that, while in-born talent doesn't automatically grow over time, his own persistent effort and daily self-encouragement has led to continuous improvement. Eventually, he not only caught up with his sister but surpassed her significantly. Khan recognizes his strengths – he has plenty of explosive power - but his flexibility is limited and he cannot stretch his feet into ‘pointe’. However, he approaches these challenges as opportunities for growth, seeking his own interpretative methods. This approach allowed him to perform alongside Sylvie Guillem, using different techniques to mask any bodily tensions from the audience. For young people aspiring to pursue a career in dance, Khan advises maintaining a reflective relationship with dance, questioning the depth of their passion. In this era of information overload, he encourages them not to seek easy answers or shortcuts. Instead, he advocates embracing challenges and experiencing all processes fully, emphasizing that arts like music and dance require physical sensation and expression.
Remarks:
*Peter Brook (1925-2022), born in London, was one of the most influential international theatre directors of the second half of the 20th century. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 and later became associated with the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in 1974, where he served as artistic director and director. In 2019, he received the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts. His notable works include Marat/Sade and The Mahabharata, and his book The Empty Space is a seminal classic in contemporary theatre studies.
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William Chan
A senior art critic, media and theatre producer, Chan has predominantly engaged in performing arts research and education in recent years. He is currently a lecturer (Practice-based Research) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
