The great Bangladeshi-British dancer and choreographer Akram Khan will be in Berkeley this weekend to performs the final solo work of his career.
Titled “XENOS,” Kahn’s work combines both his personal history and an observance of the more than 1 million Indian colonial soldiers who fought for Britain in World War I.
Khan’s work is an amalgamation of Indian kathak and modern dance styles. “I play an Indian classical dancer who is suddenly called up by the Empire to fight in the First World War,” he says. “He goes into battle; he’s in a foreign land, fighting a foreign war, eating foreign food. He could die. Taken from the point of view of shell shock, the pieces — the past, present and future — are all intermingled, intertwined with each other, not in a logical or systematic way.”
“All the collaborators (musicians, designers and writers) were fascinated with the concept of time,” he continues. “What does time mean and how does it become broken? Eastern time is very different; it’s linked to natural cycles, while Western time is industrial time. So moving from India to Europe, and being in battle, it’s suspended time. He’s waiting to die, he’s running into the fighting and wondering if he’ll survive. His perception of time becomes fragmented.”
This production, with live musical accompaniment, is co-produced by Cal Performances and Onassis Cultural Centre in Athens. It promises a deep exploration of a soldier’s alienation as he is trapped between two cultures in the colonial system.
Details: 8 p.m. March 2, 5 p.m. March 3; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $15-$78; 510-642-9988, calperformances.org.