A one-man show revisits WWI through Indian eyes
Choreographer-dancer Akram Khan brings Xenos to NAC for North American première
Akram Khan, the celebrated British choreographer-dancer, returns to Ottawa this week for the North American première of Xenos. One of the projects commissioned by the British organization 14-18 Now to mark the centenary of the First World War, Xenos portrays a shell-shocked former soldier from India reliving the horrors of battle. In this edited interview, Khan talks about his inspiration, the uncomfortable parallels to today’s political climate and the physical demands of a full-length solo piece.
QI know Xenos began as a commission but it sounds like it became a personal journey, too. How did it evolve?
ATo be honest with you, the first seed that I planted when I knew I was going to make a final, full-length solo piece, was Prometheus. I’ve been fascinated by Greek mythology since I was young, and this was the one character I wanted to explore. But during 2017, many strong articles were coming out in the national newspapers by lecturers and academics and journalists and writers, people who have been digging deep into archives and realizing that 1.4 million Indian colonial soldiers fought in the First World War. I didn’t study that in history, and the films that we see never reflect that in any way. It’s almost like it went under the radar, was omitted or hidden, so a narrative could be written. What we start to realize is history is written by white men.
QHow did that realization affect you?
AThis really upset me, and I wanted to subvert the attention to those voices. In a sense I felt my body had to represent the colonial soldiers that were xenos, the strangers, that came from foreign lands all over the British Empire and came over to fight a war, most often not because they wanted to, but because they were fed with false promises or fear, or they wanted to prove themselves. They came and fought, and many died. To go unacknowledged really upset me.
QWere any of your family members involved in the war?
AMy father thinks yes but he can’t prove it. The other thing with my parents is that they’re from Bangladesh. The closest memory of any war, that overwhelmed any previous war for them, would be the independence of Bangladesh, which was in 1971. My father and mother think they may have lost the line of memory of what happened before that, in the Second and First World Wars.
QHow did the piece take shape
when you began to work with your collaborators (including Ottawa-born playwright Jordan Tannahill)?
AThe more we went into the process, the more we started to realize this piece is becoming about colonial soldiers, and the story of Prometheus metaphorically got absorbed into the story of the eternal soldier. The whole show is about this colonial soldier who’s shell-shocked so the whole thing happens in his head, his body. It’s not linear.
QXenophobia has been resurfacing in the world these days. Was that on your mind?
AAbsolutely. These symptoms that we’re experiencing in politics and civilization within the world today are the very same symptoms that were there before the First World War, and just before the Second World War. Something that always hits me that Zeus said, that humankind doesn’t deserve fire because they don’t know the value of it so they keep repeating their mistakes. The sense of repetition, after two horrific world wars, that we are slowly edging towards just that, is terrifying. It’s been within all of our thoughts, all of the collaborators.
QThis is your final, full-length solo piece. Why?
AThere’s several reasons. First of all, I’m 44 and I have to train much harder and longer to be able to sustain a show like this. And then touring, I’m very particular about how many places I’ll go to and how long I’ll be there. I have two small children. I’m much less present as a father and it’s a real shame. If I’m in it, I have to tour it. And the possibility of injury, and the psychological fear of that.
QWhat sort of training do you have to do to prepare for this sort of piece?
AI have to train more than three or four hours a day even before I get to rehearsal. I have to train three hours a day in classical Indian dance, and do one-anda-half hours of gym work simply to prevent injury. Your body changes, and if you want to dance at this level, then you have to put in the hours, and if you put in the hours, your family is left at home.
QWhen did you make the decision?
AWhen I (choreographed) Giselle, it was the first time my body was not present. I was there in mind, but my body was not contributing to the work. And I really enjoyed that process. That’s the moment I realized that I’m coming to an end of my career as a dancer, full-length solo, at least. Maybe I’ll do 10 minutes in a company work just to keep the relationship with the stage. But it was time for me, I felt, to not do full-length solos anymore.
Q
What’s next for you?
A
We’re embarking on a threeyear process to make a feature film. And working with musicians within the pop world. I’m shifting back and forth from the art world and the commercial world because I feel there is something to learn from both.
QCan you tell me more about the film?
AI can’t say too much about it. We’re in the process of creating a feature film for Xenos. I’m the main character. It’s an art film. There’s something about legacy that keeps coming up. My mother always said, “I want your children to see you dance,” and I said, “That’s probably not going to happen.” By the time they’re allowed in the theatre, I would have stopped the full-length work, and I don’t think Xenos is right for a three- and five-year-old.