in 2011, Desh met with immediate success around the world. Building on that, he created a version for children aged 7+ and their families, with the help of the theatre director Sue Buckmaster. Chotto Desh is a danced story which follows an adult delving back into his childhood memories. It explores the experiences of a child raised in the two radically different societies of Bangladesh and Britain. Beyond the coming-of-age story, it is an immersive show mixing different registers of dance, words, mime and video. It deftly plays with computer-generated images as the dancer climbs to the treetops, plays with an elephant and butterflies, or sets sail on a magical ship. Akram Khan has an unmatched talent for creating before our very eyes a world full of marvels, tempting us to follow him on a fantastical journey.

Source: Biennale de la Danse

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated  and respected dance artists of today. In just over 19 years he has  created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in  the UK and abroad. His reputation has been built on the success of  imaginative, highly accessible and relevant productions such as XENOS, Until the Lions, Kaash, iTMOi (in the mind of igor), DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zero degrees.

As an instinctive and natural collaborator, Khan has been a magnet to  world-class artists from other cultures and disciplines. His previous  collaborators include the National Ballet of China, actress Juliette  Binoche, ballerina Sylvie Guillem, choreographers/dancers Sidi Larbi  Cherkaoui and Israel Galván, singer Kylie Minogue, indie rock band  Florence and the Machine, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley  and Tim Yip, writer Hanif Kureishi and composers Steve Reich, Nitin  Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost.

Khan’s work is recognised as being profoundly moving, in which his  intelligently crafted storytelling is effortlessly intimate and epic.  Described by the Financial Times as an artist “who speaks tremendously  of tremendous things”, a highlight of his career was the creation of a  section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that was  received with unanimous acclaim.

As a choreographer, Khan has developed a close collaboration with  English National Ballet and its Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. He  created the short piece Dust, part of the Lest We Forget programme, which led to an invitation to create his own critically acclaimed version of the iconic romantic ballet Giselle.

Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career  including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New York Dance  and Performance Award), the prestigious ISPA (International Society for  the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele  Astaire Award, the Herald Archangel Award at the Edinburgh International  Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award and eight Critics’ Circle  National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in  2005. He is also an Honorary Graduate of University of London as well as  Roehampton and De Montfort Universities, and an Honorary Fellow of  Trinity Laban.

Khan is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London and Curve, Leicester.

Source: Akram Khan Company

More information: akramkhancompany.net

After studies of mathematics preparatory class and medecine studies, Luc Riolon begins to make films within the framework of his Faculty of Medicine, then met the famous choreographers of the 80s (Maguy Marin, Mark Tompkins, Josef Nadj, Daniel Larrieu Daniel, Odile Duboc, Josette Baiz, Angelin Prljocaj, etc.) with whom he shoots numerous films (re-creation for the camera, the illegal securements). In the 80s with the American choreographer Mark Tompkins he introduces the video on the stage, broadcasting live on big screens the images which he shoots with his camera by being on the stage with the dancers, mixing live images and pre-recorded images. With Daniel Larrieu he participates in the creation of the famous show WATERPROOF, the contemporary choreography which takes place in a swimming pool, by filming live) the dancers dancing in the water and mixing the live images with pre-recorded underwater images. This choreography has been shown in many countries (USA, Canada, Spain, England…)
Then he collaborates during 10 years with the famous french TV producer Eve Ruggieri for her programs" Musics in the heart ". He shoots with her of numerous documentaries about classical music, opera singers and dance. From 1999 he directs documentaries of scientific popularization, by following researchers attached to the resolution of a particular ecologic enigma. These two artistic and scientific domains which can seem separated are nevertheless, for Luc Riolon, connected by the same approach : the deep desire to understand the world, by the art or by the scientific research, and to restore it to the largest number. Among his recent scientific documentaries, we can quote for example " The Enigma of the Black Caiman ", Living and dying in the swamp " or " The Nile delta: The end of the miracle ". “Chernobyl, a natural history ? “ These documentaries of scientific popularization recently have been awarded in international festivals.

Source: Vimeo

En juillet 1999, dans le foyer du Queen Elizabeth Hall à Londres, une conversation animée et pleine de curiosité a lieu entre le jeune danseur/chorégraphe Akram Khan et un ancien danseur ambitieux et récemment diplômé directeur artistique, Farooq Chaudhry. Cette conversation jette les bases d'une collaboration dynamique, qui abouti à la création de la Akram Khan Company un an plus tard.
Inspirée par la formation initiale de Kathak d'Akram Khan et par le langage hybride qui émerge lorsque cette danse classique indienne fusionne avec sa formation en danse contemporaine, une vision commence à se former, alimentée par un désir d'apprendre et de créer en collaborant avec des artistes dans toutes les disciplines.
Les règles sont simples : prendre des risques, voir grand et audacieux, explorer l'inconnu, éviter les compromis et raconter des histoires à travers la danse qui sont convaincantes et pertinentes, toujours avec une intégrité artistique.

En un peu plus de vingt ans, la Akram Khan Company est désormais incontestablement l'une des premières compagnies de danse au monde. La compagnie a une présence internationale majeure, ses tournées font le tour du globe et touchent de nombreuses cultures et peuples à travers le monde. La Akram Khan Company est artiste associée au Sadler's Wells Theatre, à la Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts de Londres et au Curve Theatre de Leicester. 

Source : Akram Khan Company

En savoir plus : akramkhancompany.net

Presenté par Arte France, 24 IMAGES
Filmé à la Maison de la Danse, Lyon, France – 9 décembre 2017
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Première mondiale: 23 October 2015, DanceEast, Ipswich, GB
Direction artistique et chorégraphie pour DESH Akram KhanMise en scène et adaptation de Chotto Desh Sue Buckmaster (Theatre-Rites) Composition musicale Jocelyn PookConception lumière Guy HoareHistoires imaginées par Karthika Nair et Akram Khanécrites par Karthika Naïr, Sue Buckmaster et Akram KhanLe conte de la grand-mère dans Chotto Desh est tiré du livre Le Tigre de Miel Assistant chorégraphe Jose AgudoDirectrice de répétition Amy ButlerInterprètes (en alternance) Dennis Alamanos ou Nicolas RicchiniDanseur dans la version filmée Dennis AlamanosVoix d'Akram Khan Daniel Berrebi
Voix du père Asil Raïs
Voix de la grand-mère Tulika Srivastava
Voix du Jui Skyla Adjei
Conseillère pour l’accent Leesa Gazi Production Claire Cunningham pour AKCTConception visuelle Tim YipAnimation visuelle conçue par Yeast CultureConception costumes Kimie Nakano Conception sonore Alex SteinIngénieur musique Steve ParrAdaptation et réalisation costumes Martina TrottmannIngénieur son et vidéo Sam Collier 
Coordination technique Zak MacroRégisseur plateau Jessica Rice Séquence de la tête peinte imaginée par Damien Jalet et Akram Khan
Paroles de 'Bleeding Soles' écrites par Leesa Gazi
Chanteurs Melanie Pappenheim, Sohini Alam, Jocelyn Pook (voix/alto/piano), Tanja Tzarovska, Jeremy Schonfield Remerciements particuliers à tous les artistes qui ont contribué à la création originale de DESH, dont Chotto Desh est tiré. Coproduction MOKO Dance, Akram Khan Company, Sadler's Wells (Londres, UK), DanceEast (Ipswich, UK), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris, France), Biennale de la danse de Lyon 2016 (France), Mercat de les Flors (Barcelone) et Stratford Circus Arts Centre, avec le soutien de Arts Council England.