Dancer Akram Khan on his last performance: 'Xenos is a symbol of rebirth’

For dancer and choreographer Akram Khan who delivers his final performance as an artiste next weekend the most intense part of the preparation was the research for his piece which is the story of an Indian soldier who fought for the British Army in World War IldquoAround 14 million colonial soldiers from around the world fought for the British empire and as is typical of the British empire they just excluded them from historyrdquo Khan says ldquoWe were devastated by that and we wanted to give a voice to the unheard the deadrdquoThe performance titled Xenos derives its name from the narrative of Prometheus the Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods and introduced it to mankind Xenos symbolises rebirth and the almost disconcerting change in identity as one confronts the realitiesmdashor horrorsmdashof a whole new lifeThe performance was commissioned by UKbased 1418 NOW a cultural programme commissioning art performances to mark the centenary of the WWI In Xenos the political landscape of the War is defined by the harsh elements glaring colours and use of terrestrial imagery to evoke a sense of an interpersonal and external struggleldquoI wanted to create a poetic rendition of the work rather than a literal rendition of one soldierrsquos narrativerdquo Khan explains ldquoIf Irsquove got to be literal then Irsquove got to do it differently from a politician Art for me is the sweeter tongue of politicsrdquoHe adds that itrsquos important to portray political events in an undiluted light because as a society we have ldquoglobal dementiardquoDancer and choreographer Akram KhanldquoWe choose to forget because itrsquos easier to forget By forgetting wersquore repeating our mistakesrdquo he says For Khan the state of the world today is much the same as what it was in the days of the two great wars maybe even worse ldquoOur mistakes need to be part of the narrative right from when wersquore children otherwise wersquod keep repeating themrdquoThe 48yearold Bangladeshi artiste is very vocal about history needing to be seen from the often more revealing viewpoint of those whose stories have never been heard His own experience with history and mythology was shaped by his feminist motherrsquos retelling of stories from the point of view of female charactersAs an Indian classical dancer trained in the dance form Kathak for his entire life Khan incorporates ldquoa mindset to be fluidrdquo in his movements and storytelling preferring to include elements from multiple genres and ideas of thought When asked about what made him narrow down the performance into one word Xenos which is a Greek word that means lsquostrangerrsquo Khan counters ldquoDo you not feel like a stranger in the world right nowrdquo He elaborates ldquoWersquore not the owners of this earth We are guests Everyone feels like lsquoXenosrsquo right now against political leaders against governments against the ones in power against the capitalist systemhellipwe feel like strangers to our own earthrdquoXenos was chosen as the performance to mark the end of Khanrsquos dance career because of its connection to India ldquoI wanted to finish my career in India especially with this work as itrsquos about Indian colonial soldiersrdquo Khan signs off ldquoIrsquom playing an Indian classical dancer who is thrust into the trenches of Europe fighting a war I donrsquot understandrdquoWHAT Xenos the final dance performance of artiste Akram KhanWHEN June 24 and June 25 6 PMWHERE Jamshed Bhabha Theatre NCPAPRICE Rs 500 onwardsTO BOOK wwwbookmyshowcom