By Jeremy Miles
Lighthouse has added another winning production to its growing programme of cutting-edge contemporary dance with this hotly anticipated work from award-winning dancer and choreographer Akram Khan
Featuring an international cast from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds and a score by Nitin Sawhney, it explores the disjointed world of the 21st century nomad.
It focuses on global travellers marooned in the no-man’s land of an international airport as flights are grounded and rescheduled.
The title of this piece - which sometimes pounds with energy, anger and frustration but is also gentle and mesmeric - is Bahok, the Bengali word for ‘carrier’.
It is a work that examines the ways in which the body carries national identity and a sense of belonging. How we package the essence of our being within a portable framework of physicality and attitude.
Combining Chinese, Korean, Indian, South-African, Slovakian and Spanish influences, it delivers a rich mix of spoken and dance language pushing the boundaries of movement vocabulary with exhilarating results.
It finds the children of the global village coming together in a transit zone communicating through movement, gestures and sounds that transcend the spoken word. Enduring the tedium of modern travel, they find their hopes and plans are temporarily in the hands of a remote communications system with instructions, delays and occasionally absolutely nothing at all, spelled out on a visual display unit.
*Featuring a score by Nitin Sawhney, Bahok is named after the Bengali word for ‘carrier’,
Conceived by dancer and choreographer Akram Khan and co-written by the company of eight international dancers, it uses differing cultural perspectives and diverse dance styles to explore the notion of how travelling across the world, we carrying our home with us,encapsulated in the the essence of who were are and where we come from
Khan is one of the most celebrated choreographers working on the international stage today, and at only 33 years of age he has already created a substantial body of critically acclaimed work. He has numerous awards and honours including an MBE for services to dance. He has been an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells since March 2005.