Anthropological aspects of contemporary dance. Conversations with Akram Khan on fate, inspiration and stage narration
Contemporary dance is a global phenomenon, but national and ethnic aspects are regularly manifested both in the content and in the form of performances, and in artists’ life-stories. Akram Khan is one of the most famous dancers and choreographers of our time. Member of the Order of the British Empire for Dance Merit since 2005, he is the creator of numerous ballets performed by various troupes and the author and performer of solo programs. Each of his performances is an event that offers a new vision of both the form and the content of contemporary dance. This essay is based on personal conversations of Svetlana Ryzhakova with Akram Khan in 2017 and 2019, as well as observations and analysis of his family history, career and artistic activity. Akram Khan was born and raised in England, but his parents are migrants from Bangladesh, a Muslim, although a very Westernized family. Problems of ethnic and cultural identity, personal attitudes towards language and the body, historical memory, social tension, “friends and foes”, homeland, as well as how modernity can and should be reflected on stage formed the basis of our conversations and reasoning of Akram Khan.