Growing up in a household filled with the music of Tom Jones, Michael Jackson and classic Bollywood tunes led Akram Khan to explore how the body can be moved to express the various states of emotions. In a night of casual conversation with our guest host Wenlan Peng, he shared anecdotes of growing up dancing to classical Kathak whilst being influenced by the movements of Michael Jackson and how his Bangladeshi heritage shaped his thoughts and ideas around using dance to express himself.
He also revealed his original creative process with audiences, which is often sparked by the simplest embryonic idea before developing into big productions. He also gave us behind- the-scenes insights into the making of Desh and his collaborations with other word-class creatives such as Anish Kapoor and Juliette Binoche.
Against the wide range of topics and ideas touched on that night, his art could be summarised in this inspirational statement: ‘The more you limit me, the more creative I’m gonna be.’