Akram Khan by Lorna Sanders

“When writing of Akram Khan critics use superlatives. He refers to his career as a “roller-coaster ride”. View a video clip of his work at http://londondance.com/articles/features/video-box/. The following comments indicate what you will see there. Khan has: a “dazzling mixture of macho foot speed and honeyed muscular tone” 1 , a “lyrically generous upper body … commanding, graceful and charismatic, [and] a blistering percussive attack” 2 .

Akram Khan, of Bangladesh heritage, was born in London in 1974. His mother’s interest in dance was key. She introduced him to Bengali folk dancing and when he was seven took him to the celebrated kathak teacher, Sri Pratap Pawar. Theatre and drama were also influential. His first professional role, touring in The Adventures of Mowgli, came when he was ten. As a teenager he spent two years in Peter Brook’s play, The Mahabharata. Khan’s A levels included Bengali and (significantly) mathematics. He also continued his dance studies as Pawar’s disciple, being formally presented by him in his first solo recital at 18.3 The guru-disciple relationship is special. Ravi Shankar explains; the student learns “all the process of life which relates to the art form also”. 4 Khan admires Pawar’s “masculine yet graceful style” 5 and clearly embodies this ideal. “