Connecting Physics and Shiva

BANGALORE: The city''s dance connoisseurs will on Monday witness an exploration beyond self, through ''Kaash'', an internationally acclaimed contemporary dance and Kathak fusion performance by celebrated choreographer Akram Khan at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. Performed by an international cast of five led by Akram Khan, the ensemble brings together the talents of Anish Kapoor (set design) and Nitin Sawhney (composer).
Akram calls it the connection between the Shiva and Physics.Kaash, the Hindi word for ''if'', is a 55-minute ensemble after a thorough research of 10 weeks. "Kaash is one of my continuing quests to bridge the worlds of contemporary and Indian classical dance," Akram Khan said in an interview to The Times of India.
"I call my work confusion, not fusion, as critics say. It is a way of suggesting the different stages of confusion in the body through the language of dance. I have more to explore," he stressed, his body language clearly expressing dissatisfaction over the kinetics of one form of dance.
His sentiments seem but natural to this London-born 29-year-old dancer of Bangladeshi origin. Bangladeshi folk up to the age of seven followed by 20 years of Kathak (his guru, Pratap Pawar, disciple of Birju Maharaj) led him to a state of confusion of traditional repertoire of Kathak and modern sensibilities. At the university, he started his innovation of contemporary dance forms with a large influence of Kathak in it. "It is my mother''s influence on me not to trap curiosity. My dance speaks for me, it gives me a path to find god," says the associate artist of the Royal Festival Hall, the first non-musician to be accorded this status.
Akram has a rejoinder for classical dancers who pooh-pooh contemporary style. "No doubt they are highly acclaimed artistes but they must be open to experiences. It seems like they are rubbishing contemporary dancing without actually understanding it."
The award-winning dancer, who has performed all over the world working with sitar maestro Pt Ravi Shankar in The Jungle Book and later in Peter Brook''s Mahabharata, has faced some resistance by his community as well. "All thanks to my mother, I continue to have a fascination for Hindu myths as much as Bangladeshi and Jewish myths."
He is currently working on another project ''Ma'', inspired by Arundhati Roy''s book ''Algebra of Infinite justice''.
Courtesy British Council and HSBC, Kaash will be performed at Chowdaiah Memorial at 7 pm on Monday. Passes are available at the British Library, Prestige Takt, on Kasturba Road. The performance is part of his Indian tour covering Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata.