The Akram Khan Company new contemporary dance piece had its premiere in Beijing. The show is called bahok, which is Bengali for carrier. Akram's artistic genius stems from his capacity to create new striking movement sequences, drawing on Indian classical and contemporary dance languages, to convey some more profound truth about a universal experience. In this show the context is journeys and the setting is very simple and totally familiar: people are gathered under one of those signs that you see in stations and airports on which place name, times and messages revolve every few moments. We have all stood staring up at one of these signs waiting for our destination, or feeling apprehensive about some problem which is about to be revealed about the journey we want to undertake. Wanting to get the journey over with, particularly if we are going home.
Over the length of the show the dancers, from European contemporary dance traditions and from the National Ballet of China, configure themselves into pairs and groups and movement is set to some small scene we have all witnessed in stations and airports: someone asleep who keeps tilting and tumbling on to the person next to them; boys arguing about a computer game; someone humming the tune they are listening to on their IPod - all instantly recognisable, but not the movements or the meanings drawn from them in the show: are these people really going anywhere? do they have homes - or destinations? In our world of frantic motion has the business of being on a journey from one place to another - from one identity to another - become an identity in itself? Perhaps if we keep on moving, home isn't a place anymore. Home becomes just an idea, a sentiment, a memory. It no longer has a physical meaning. Home, in Akram's piece, becomes your body and your memories - disconnected entirely from the actuality of place.
These are all the thoughts that go through your mind, but what you are watching is a scintillating display of exuberant, original movement by a fantastic young troupe. That excitement counterposed against the reflections about home and memory that the piece brings to mind, in that juxtaposition of movement and reflection, that's where the power of the work lives - as in all Akram's work.
Watching this in the evanescent streets and spaces of Beijing, which change from week to week and month to month, particularly as the Olympics draw nearer, of course, makes one wonder what Chinese people think of their home now, now that everywhere is so changed. Tian An Men Square is probably the most iconic and notorious space in China, filled with symbols of power and tradition: the Forbidden City; the Great Hall of the People. But right next to the Great Hall of the People a hyper-modern temple has been unveiled. It is shaped like a gigantic half of an egg laid on its side made from silver titanium and glass. The egg sits in a glassy moat, which reflects the other half of the egg. No entrance is visible. The entrance is below ground, under the moat. This building is a dramatic piece of theatre in itself, set against the classic backdrop of Tian An Men Square, and how right that it should be theatrical because it is the new National Centre for Performing Arts.
Over the length of the show the dancers, from European contemporary dance traditions and from the National Ballet of China, configure themselves into pairs and groups and movement is set to some small scene we have all witnessed in stations and airports: someone asleep who keeps tilting and tumbling on to the person next to them; boys arguing about a computer game; someone humming the tune they are listening to on their IPod - all instantly recognisable, but not the movements or the meanings drawn from them in the show: are these people really going anywhere? do they have homes - or destinations? In our world of frantic motion has the business of being on a journey from one place to another - from one identity to another - become an identity in itself? Perhaps if we keep on moving, home isn't a place anymore. Home becomes just an idea, a sentiment, a memory. It no longer has a physical meaning. Home, in Akram's piece, becomes your body and your memories - disconnected entirely from the actuality of place.
These are all the thoughts that go through your mind, but what you are watching is a scintillating display of exuberant, original movement by a fantastic young troupe. That excitement counterposed against the reflections about home and memory that the piece brings to mind, in that juxtaposition of movement and reflection, that's where the power of the work lives - as in all Akram's work.
Watching this in the evanescent streets and spaces of Beijing, which change from week to week and month to month, particularly as the Olympics draw nearer, of course, makes one wonder what Chinese people think of their home now, now that everywhere is so changed. Tian An Men Square is probably the most iconic and notorious space in China, filled with symbols of power and tradition: the Forbidden City; the Great Hall of the People. But right next to the Great Hall of the People a hyper-modern temple has been unveiled. It is shaped like a gigantic half of an egg laid on its side made from silver titanium and glass. The egg sits in a glassy moat, which reflects the other half of the egg. No entrance is visible. The entrance is below ground, under the moat. This building is a dramatic piece of theatre in itself, set against the classic backdrop of Tian An Men Square, and how right that it should be theatrical because it is the new National Centre for Performing Arts.
It is designed to inspire awe in anyone looking at it, awe at the drama of the building, but more importantly awe at the audacity and speed with which the Chinese authorities are embracing modernity in its most extreme variants. Sadly the work performed in the centre will take longer to reach the levels of quality and modernity achieved by the building. The Chinese leaders are rushing to the future, perhaps leaving the people who live in the ancient hutongs behind the Forbidden City wondering if all they will shortly have of their homes are their memories and their bodies.
For pictures of Akram Khan Company's bahok go to www.flickr.com/photos/gerardlemos/sets
For pictures of Akram Khan Company's bahok go to www.flickr.com/photos/gerardlemos/sets
No comments:
Post a Comment