da:ns festival 2015 TOROBAKA House Programme by Esplanade

16 & 17 Oct 2015 Fri & Sat, 8PM esplanade Theatre

Photo by Jean Louis Fernandez

DA:NS TURNS

1hr 10mins, no intermission

About Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay Esplanade is Singapore’s national performing arts centre and one of the busiest arts centres in the world. Since its opening in 2002, the centre has presented more than 31,000 performances, drawing an audience of 22 million patrons and 84 million visitors. This architectural icon, with its distinctive twin shells, houses worldclass performance spaces complemented by a comprehensive range of professional support services. Its two main venues are the 1,600-seat Concert Hall and a Theatre with a capacity of 2,000. In March 2014, Esplanade’s Concert Hall was listed as one of the “world’s 15 most beautiful concert halls” by Hamburg-based building data company Emporis. Esplanade’s vision is to be a performing arts centre for everyone and it seeks to enrich the lives of its community through the arts. The centre’s programming is guided by its mission – to entertain, engage, educate and inspire. Its year-long arts calendar of about 3,000 performances presented by Esplanade, its collaboration partners and hirers cater to diverse audiences in Singapore and span different cultures, languages and genres including dance, music, theatre, visual arts and more. More than 70% of the shows that take place each year at the centre are non-ticketed. In May 2015, Esplanade was chosen as one of SG Heart Map’s 50 special places. Esplanade regularly presents world-renowned companies and artists that attract international attention and add to Singapore’s cultural vibrancy. The centre is also a popular performance home for arts groups and commercial presenters who hire its venues to stage a wide range of programmes. These carefully curated presentations complement Esplanade’s own diverse offerings for audiences. Esplanade works in close partnership with local, regional and international artists to develop artistic capabilities, push artistic boundaries and engage audiences. The centre supports the creation of artistic content and develops technical capabilities for the industry nationally. Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay is operated by The Esplanade Co Ltd, which is a not-for-profit organisation, a registered Charity and an Institution of a Public Character. Visit www.esplanade.com for more information.

Board Members Mr Lee Tzu Yang (Chairman) Mr Benson Puah (Chief Executive Officer) Dr Beh Swan Gin Mrs Rosa Daniel Ms Kathy Lai Dr Jennifer Lee

Mrs Christine Ong Mr Ramlee Bin Buang Ms Saw Phaik Hwa Mrs Mildred Tan-Sim Beng Mei Mr Yap Chee Meng Mr Andre Yeap

Esplanade is a proud member of

Association of Asia Pacific Performing Art Centres www.aappac.net

1 Esplanade Drive, Singapore 038981 Tel: 6828 8222 Fax: 6337 3633 Customer Service Hotline: 6828 8377 SISTIC Hotline: 6348 5555

Festival Message Where has the time gone? da:ns festival turns 10 this year and it seems like only yesterday when we presented our first edition. At da:ns festival, our sense of time shifts. As we watch bodies move on stage, or as we ourselves dance, time as we know it, is suspended, and we become attuned to time driven by the body and its unique rhythms in movement. Over the years, we hope the festival has given you several experiences and memories that have expanded your sense of movement, and opened you up to different expressions of dance. The festival team has had the pleasure of creating this dedicated event, growing a myriad of platforms in our festival that support the development of dance. To encourage more people of all ages to try dancing, we have worked with Singapore dance studios to provide fun and easy dance lessons that everyone can enjoy both inside our rehearsal studio, outdoors along our waterfront and around Singapore. Last year, we welcomed over 28,000 participants to these sessions and the overall da:ns festival has doubled in audience size since it’s first year. To support the creation of new dance works, da:ns festival commissions, co-produces and provides residencies for artists. This has led to long-lasting relationships with artists we deeply admire for their dedication and creativity, and enabled 23 new dance creations, the majority from Asian dance-makers. So this year, for our special 10th anniversary, we have invited several of these artists to celebrate this special occasion with us, some of whom are marking significant milestones in their own personal careers. We host the legendary Sylvie Guillem, who returns to da:ns festival with her final world tour before retiring from 35 years of dancing, while Singapore choreographer Kuik Swee Boon creates a work that brings together leading dance-makers in their 40s back to the stage. The festival would have not been possible without our supportive audience of dance lovers, the dance-makers who continually inspire us, our festival sponsors and partners who have shared our belief in the significance of dance in our lives, and our group of dedicated festival volunteers—the da:ns Kaki Ambassadors. With deep gratitude to everyone— thank you for being part of 10 years of da:ns festival together. Faith Tan Producer da:ns festival

Esplanade’s da:ns festival programming team (L–R: Marlene Ditzig, Iris Cheung, Faith Tan, Emily J Hoe, Rydwan Anwar, Christel Hon & Shireen Abdullah. Not in photo: Suhana Laila Abdul Shukur, Fezhah Maznan & Joyce Yao)

Photo by Jean Louis Fernandez

Israel Galván and Akram Khan Akram Khan; Israel Galván; Khan; Galván; the very euphony of their names sets the scene. Dance before it became art. This transition, this intermediary space, this interstice is where they operate. This is not, of course, an ethnic exchange between traditions, an exercise in global dance. It is about creating something from a way of understanding dance—derived, certainly, from dancing kathak and flamenco—that harks back to the origins of voice and of gesture, before they began to produce meaning. Mimesis rather than mimicry. The hunter, lost in the countryside, imitates the gait of the animal he has come to hunt. Words are yet to be defined, guttural sounds which are understood almost as if they were orders, acts of command. Every part of the body is expressive, movements are read, they have a function. Torobaka! Nor is there any need for primitivism. In one of the rehearsals Khan and Galván grappled with Toto-vaca, a Maori-inspired phonetic poem by Tristan Tzara. It was automatic. The bull (toro) and the cow (vaca), sacred animals in the dancers’ two traditions, but united, profaned (in the original sense of the word, to restore things to their common use), in an unconstrained dadaist poem. Israel Galván and Akram Khan. This is what it is about, dancing without compromise and for the audience to go on perceiving it as art. Pedro G. Romero, January 2014

programme notes

“

Dancing beside Israel is like dancing next to a sublime storyteller of rhythms, not rhythms of the past, but rhythms of the future. I have gained so much insight into flamenco through Israel. He has opened my eyes into how and what is possible with flamenco: how one can deconstruct it, transform it and recreate it, in order to form new stories. After all, stories are what help us make sense of the world.

I think the simplest way to describe our process together is to imagine if fragrance was created before the flower that contains it, that’s how our ideas developed on this wonderful journey. At first we created smells, colours, sketches, then together, with the musicians, lighting designer, sound designer, costume designer, rehearsal director and many others, we finally encapsulated it in the body of a theme: TOROBAKA.

Akram Khan

”

The Dancing Bodies of Anarchy Tradition is like oxygen during the day, and during the night it is carbon dioxide. I would say that is the simplest way I could think of to illustrate what Israel and I do, with our respective traditions. For Israel, flamenco would be his tradition, and my oxygen would be kathak. For many years now, I have been hungry to create a space where these respective traditions can co-exist with each other to create a new dynamic dance... But the reason I held back was simply because I was not excited to revisit what

so many other artists before us have attempted, which is to simply illustrate a connection between the two traditions. How do we break the mould or the tradition from within? Only when I finally witnessed Israel perform, did I realise that he was the artist I was waiting for to travel on this journey of discovery and anarchy… (After all, anarchy is sometimes necessary to remind tradition to update itself.)

you have shown us unfamiliar images “andMaster, rhythms, a new world that I now recognise as kathak. There are poisons that heal, and kathak is one of these remedies. I have it nestled within my body.

Master, sometimes we must move forward, go faster and then stop suddenly. Gandhi, perhaps, knew that by standing still we more easily see the world than people who are always moving. Master, I came prepared for a cockfight, the snake and the weasel, and we have become

monks, two holy men in a secluded monastery of dance. Master, I have found a brother, one and only, unique. Maybe people won’t like our steps, but I have learnt so much. What matters is the process. I hope that each of our thousands of hours of rehearsals, and the work together, can be seen. I hope that all that we put into the show can be seen, and the rest too, all that we have removed. What is and what is not: everything is important.

”

Israel Galván

In Gestation My mother danced in flamenco venues in Seville until the seventh month of her pregnancy. She was pregnant with me, I was inside. I grew up dancing with my parents and I developed an almost religious respect towards flamenco. I had a master whose name was Mario Maya. When I watched him for the first time I became completely amazed by new things that I had never contemplated before. When I was training with Akram in Paris, he reminded me of my master. I asked Akram to choreograph some dance steps typical of my master. Akram picked up the steps perfectly, he felt confident with them and I could see a young Mario. The way Akram communicates whilst moving was very dear to me.

are my boots with toes and heels. He told me once that when he dances, it is like giving a present to the audience. As a dancer I inherit the idea of killing the audience in order to avoid them killing me. I think that Akram grew up believing in lots of gods. My family taught me to believe in one. I would like to meet many of his gods and thank the audience while I dance.

I dance barefoot but the borderline between us

Photo by Jean Louis Fernandez

biographies

ISRAEL GALVÁN

Israel Galvá́n de los Reyes was awarded the National Dance Prize 2005, “Creation” section, by the Culture Department of the Spanish Government, for “his capacity to generate a new creation in an art such as flamenco without forgetting the real roots that have sustained it to the present day and that make of it a universal genre”. In 2012 he was honoured with the New York Bessie Performance Award for an Outstanding Production and the Fine Arts Medal awarded by the Council of Ministers of Spanish Government. Son of sevillian bailaores Jose Galván and Eugenia de Los Reyes, he naturally grew up within the atmosphere of tablaos, fiestas and flamenco dance academies, where he used to accompany his father. But it was only in 1990 that he really felt like becoming a dancer. In 1994, he joined the Compañía Andaluza de Danza, directed by Mario Maya, and this was the beginning of an unstoppable career that would bring him the most important awards in flamenco (and) dance. 7

He has done many collaborations in projects of very different nature and with very different artists such as Enrique Morente, Manuel Soler, Pat Metheny, Vicente Amigo and Lagartija Nick. In 1998 Israel premiered ¡Mira! / Los Zapatos Rojos, his first creation. Praised by all the critics as a stroke of genius, it was effectively a revolution in the entire conception of flamenco shows. Since then he has presented productions such as La Metamorfosis, Galvánicas, Arena, La Edad De Oro, Tábula Rasa, Solo, El Final De Este Estado De Cosas - Redux, Israel vs Los 3000, La Curva and Lo Real/Le Réel/The Real, for which he received 3 Premios Max de Teatro (awards) in May 2014: best dance production, best choreography and best dancer. He has also created La Francesa and Pastora for his sister Pastora Galván. Galván is an Associate Artist of Théâtre de la Ville Paris and Mercat de les Flors Barcelona.

biographies

AKRAM KHAN

Photo by Jean Louis Fernandez

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists today. In just over fifteen years he has created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in the UK and abroad. His reputation has been built on the success of imaginative, highly accessible and relevant productions such as DESH, iTMOi, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zero degrees. An instinctive and natural collaborator, Khan has been a magnet to world-class artists from other cultures and disciplines. His previous collaborators include the National Ballet of China, actress Juliette Binoche, ballerina Sylvie Guillem, choreographer/dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, singer Kylie Minogue, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Tim Yip, writer Hanif Kureishi and composers Steve Reich, Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost. Khan’s work is recognised as being profoundly moving, in which his intelligently crafted storytelling is effortlessly intimate and epic.

Described by the Financial Times as an artist “who speaks tremendously of tremendous things”, a recent highlight of his career was the creation of a section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that was received with unanimous acclaim. Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award), the prestigious ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele Astaire Award, the Herald Archangel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award and six Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005. He is also an Honorary Graduate of Roehampton and De Montfort Universities, as well as University of London, and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban. Khan is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells, London. 8

biographies

musician

B. C. Manjunath

Bobote

B. C. Manjunath was born in 1976 and studied with Karnataka Kalasree K. N. Krishna Murthy and Sangeetha Kalanidhi Dr T. K. Murthy. He has accompanied and collaborated with numerous leading musicians from a wide range of genres, including the Turkish Sufi singer Kani Karaka, the Italian pop star Lucio Dalla, the trombonist Robin Eubanks, the Bibiena Quintet, the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, the Ictus Ensemble, the composers Rafael Reina and Riccardo Nova, and numerous Indian classical music virtuosos. He has perfomed in the major cultural centres of south India and has toured to almost 40 countries, including appearances at the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris; the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London; the Sydney Opera House; the Lincoln Center, New York; the Teatro La Fenice, Venice; the Tropen Museum and Muziekgebouw, Amsterdam; the Opéra de Lille; the Zagreb Biennale; the North Sea Jazz Festival; the Santander Percussion Festival; the Perth International Festival; the Romaeuropa Festival; and the John Cage Festival. He has taught at the Amsterdam Conservatory, the Rotterdam Conservatory, the International Dance Festival (Vienna) and the Sydney Festival and was granted the title Asthana Vidwan in 2012. He was awarded the 2012 Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar Award by the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Born in Seville on 28 May, 1962, Bobote began dancing aged 13 with La Susi and he took part in flamenco tablaos’ shows since very young. By the age of eight he had already created the all-singing, all-dancing group Los Gitanillos, with members of the Amador family and his inseparable stage-mate El Eléctrico. He is currently one of the most in-demand palmeros (rhythm-clappers) in the flamenco scene and he is considered a wizard of compás (flamenco rhythm). Daring and committed, he jumps from accompanying Israel Galván in theatres and dance festivals all over the world to teaching compás in workshops in Las Tres Mil, his neighbourhood in Sevilla, where he created a band under the same name and a percussion school. As dancer and palmero, he has collaborated with artistic names of the stature of Manuela Carrasco, Canales and Farruco, Miguel Poveda, Arcángel, La Argentina, Aurora Vargas and Rocío Molina and he is a habitual hand in the shows of Israel Galván. He has also performed in such outstanding films as Flamenco (Carlos Saura, 1995), Vengo (Toni Gatlif, 2000) and Polígono Sur (Dominique Abel, 2003). In the Biennial Flamenco Festival of Seville, in 2012, he premiered the first creation under his direction, De Triana a las Tres mil. Boboterías, with great success.

musician

Christine Leboutte

David Azurza

Christine Leboutte has been working with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui since 2003 in four different productions: Foi, Tempus fugit, Myth and Babel/words.

Born in Tolosa (Gipuzkoa) in 1968. David Azurza has a degree in Fine Arts (Restoration). He began singing as a tenor to continue studying as a countertenor with Isabel Alvarez (S.SebastiĂĄn). He studies singing in the Royal Conservatory of Madrid where he finished with honours in the singing speciality and received the extraordinary prize Lucrecia Arana. He is a member of several vocal groups and he has much experience as a solo singer in different contemporary operas, and symphonic repertoire. He has conducted childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and youth choirs from 1989. He is a teacher for choral vocal technique and singing, lecturer and article writer about voice in many stages and activities organised by conservatories, universities, choral federations and choral groups all over Spain as well as abroad (Argentina, France, Mexico, Europa Cantat, etc.) A self-educated composer, his activity is exclusively in the choral world. He has received several prizes in different national composition contests. His work is edited at Oihu Hau editions. He has received assignments from vocal groups, choirs, contests and choral meetings from all over the world.

She was trained in classical singing by Paule Daloze in Brussels and met Giovanna Marini (Italian singer and composer) in 1991, with whom she studied the different aesthetics of Italian country and folk singing. She is also involved in several artistic and pedagogic projects in Belgium, teaching dancers and actors with or without disabilities. One can hear her sometimes in duet with her daughter Juliette Van Peteghem.

lighting designer biographies

In 2009 Hull was delighted to become an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells Theatre and in 2010 his contribution to dance was recognised with his entry into the Oxford Dictionary of Dance. Hull was nominated for the 2012 Theatre Managers Association award for Achievement in Dance for his “brilliant contribution to lighting for dance; in particular for DESH, Torsion and The Rodin Project”

Hull has recently worked with Russell on commissions for English National Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet and Ballet Munchen, and is currently working on Akram Khan’s new duet with Flamenco virtuoso Israel Galván. In 2014, Hull received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Michael Hulls Michael Hulls trained in dance and theatre at Dartington College and was awarded a bursary by the Arts Council to attend dance lighting workshops with Jennifer Tipton in New York and Paris. Over the last 20 years he has worked exclusively in dance, particularly with choreographer Russell Maliphant. Their collaborations have won international critical acclaim and many awards: Sheer won a Time Out Award for Outstanding Collaboration; Choice won a South Bank Show Dance Award; Push, with Sylvie Guillem, won four major awards including the Olivier for Best New Dance Production; and Afterlight won two Critics’ Circle awards. Hull and Maliphantalso collaborated on Broken Fall, commissioned by BalletBoyz, which also featured Sylvie Guillem and won the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. In 2007 Hull’s and Maliphant’s work was the subject of BalletBoyz’s Channel 4 documentary Light and Dance and The Daily Telegraph hailed their collaboration as ”possibly the most important creative partnership in modern British dance.” Hull has also worked with BalletBoyz on their productions of Maliphant’s Critical Mass, Torsion and most recently on the highly acclaimed Fallen, winner of the 2013 Critics Circle National Dance Award for Best Modern Choreography. He also lit the Ballet Boyz’s productions of Christopher Wheeldon’s Mesmerics and Liam Scarlett’s Serpent. Eonnagata, Hull’s collaboration with Sylvie Guillem, Robert Lepage and Russell Maliphant, for which Hull won the 2009 Knight of Illumination Award for Dance, opened at Sadler’s Wells and along with Afterlight led to Hull being nominated for the 2010 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance, and a second Knight of Illumination Award. Hull has also worked over many years with Akram Khan on his pieces Fix, Rush, In-I—his duet with Juliette Binoche—and, most recently, on his highly acclaimed fulllength solo DESH, winner of the 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production, and In the Shadow of Man. He has also worked with Javier De Frutos on the pieces Cattle Call, Paseillo, Los Picadores, Blue Roses, Elysian Fields and the controversial Eternal Damnation, with Jonathan Burrows on The Stop Quartet and on Walking/ Music, commissioned by William Forsythe for Ballett Frankfort. 11

sound

Pedro León Pedro León holds a degree in audiovisual communications, and has also studied sound design. His training mainly comes from his experiences on tours, both in theatres and outdoor spaces, live television broadcasts, studio recordings. He has specialised in flamenco, working with artists such as MIhguel Poveda, Rocío Molina and Pastora Galván. Always restless, he combines Israel Galván’s tours with managing his own concert hall in Seville.

costume designer

Nakano’s directorial credits include Snow (a workshop with three blind singers at the ENO studio). Kimie is currently working for Three dancers for Rambert Dance Company Choreography Didy Veldman, The Moon Opera by Yabin Wang , Macbeth film, Pärt choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui for Ballet Vlaanderen, 4 seasons choreography Didy Veldman for Luzerner Theatre and one of She Said for English National Ballet choreography Yabin Wang.

Kimie Nakano Kimie Nakano studied literature at Musashino University in Tokyo, theatre costume at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre in Paris and holds a theatre design MA at Wimbledon College of Art in London. Nakano has recently designed costumes for Dust, Akram Khan’s piece for English National Ballet’s Lest We Forget, for Vertical Road/The Rashomon Effect (Akram Khan for the National Youth Dance Company) and for TOROBAKA, Khan’s new duet with flamenco star Israel Galván.

Kimie Nakano’s costume designs for ITMOI by the renowned Akram Khan Dance Company were chosen by Prague Quadrennial 2015, the world theatre design exhibition that is held every 4 years, and by the V&A Make/ Believe exhibition as part of the section British Design. Kimie strives to create intercultural projects for the stage, workshops and films, to promote different world cultures.

rehearsal director

She has also designed set and costumes for Tristan und Isolde for Longborough Festival Opera (director Carmen Jakobi), and costumes for Shadow of Memory for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide. Previous designs for Akram Khan Company include set and costumes for Vertical Road and costumes for Gnosis. Other set and costume designs for dance include Carmen for The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre (choreographer Didy Veldman), and The Little Prince choreographed by Didy Veldman (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal). Nakano has also collaborated with Eda Megumi on 8:15 (Rambert Dance Company) and with Megumi Nakamura on Sand Flower (Maastright Festival Award). Nakano’s costume designs include Now Is (Edinburgh International Festival) and Timeless for Aditi Mangaldas, The Mustard Seed choreographed by Miguel Altunaga (Rambert Dance Company), Premieres Plus Carlos Acosta and Mural Study for Van Huynh Company. Set and costume designs for opera and theatre include Yabu no Naka (modern noh/kyogen play, Tokyo Art Festival Award) directed by Mansai Nomura, Ali to Karim (US Tour) directed by Hafiz Karmali, Pas, Pas moi, va et vient (Beckett, Festival Theatre National Populaire – Lyon), The Oslo Experiment (Stratos Oslo), 2 Graves (Arts Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), La Nuit du Train de la Voie Lactée directed by Hirata Oriza (Theatre de Sartrouville – CDN), Dream Hunter directed by Carmen Jacobi, and Michael Morpugo’s Kensuke Kingdom (Polka Theatre Company). In film, Nakano was assistant costume designer on 8 and a half Women by Peter Greenaway and she was in charge of production and costumes for the short film Basho starring Yoshi Oida.

Jose Agudo Jose Agudo started his career in Andalusia where he began performing as a Flamenco dancer. Slowly the world of contemporary dance became more visible and he went to study at CAD in Seville and at the Choreographic Center of Valencia. During this time Agudo created work for the festival receiving awards both as a dancer and a choreographer. Since his departure from Spain, Agudo has performed with Charleroi/Danses, Ballet de Marseille, T.R.A.S.H, SJDC, and Akram Khan Company. Recent choreographic commissions include Qi for Phoenix Dance Company; Time/Dropper for Edinburgh Festival, and Arctic for LCDS. Agudo is very interested in the collaborative process, working with composers such as Scanner and Vinz Lamanga, and dramaturge Lou Cope. Agudo has worked for Akram Khan Company since 2011 as a rehearsal director and shadow for DESH and TOROBAKA; movement assistant for the London 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony, and choreographic assistant for iTMOi and the new production Until the Lions. 12

www.braunbuffel.com

biographies

Technical Director

Richard Fagan Richard Fagan began his career in 1997 as an electrician for Stagecraft Productions, and went on to manage the lighting department at Poole Arts Centre. He toured extensively as Stage Manager and Production Manager for the Garnet Foundation. Richard has also worked with English National Opera in their lighting department. Richard now works as a freelance lighting designer for both corporate and theatre productions. Some of his most recent lighting design credits include for corporate - Rolls Royce (Wraith press launch, Austria), Boehringer Ingelheim, and IBM, and for theatre - Not Now Bernard, Abonimation and Amazing Adventures of Mr Ben (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton). Richard has been working for Akram Khan Company for the past seven years relighting and co-ordinating the company pieces including bahok, Vertical Road, iTMOi and Kaash. He is also working on the current production TOROBAKA. He is now the Technical Director for Akram Khan Company and works closely with venues worldwide to ensure the productions are presented to the highest standard.

Technical Manager

lighting

Stéphane Déjours Stephane Déjours was born in France. He has been doing theatre/dance/concert lighting for 15 years, first as a light technician for various venues, then touring with many music bands, theatre and dance companies. After a few years as a technical director for two venues in Nantes, France, Déjours is now back to doing what he likes most: lights. His international tours as a freelance light manager in the past two years include Southern Bound Comfort by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui/Gregory Maqoma, Venus by Robyn Orlin, Temps by Wajdi Mouawad, TezukA by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Circle of sound by Soumik Datta, Vertical Road and DESH by Akram Khan Company.

tour manager

Pablo Pujol

Amapola López

Pablo Pujol began to study engineering at the same time as debuting in the European championship of motorcycling. Leaving motor racing he found in the performance world the continuation of the wandering life of the circuits. He’s been the tireless technical director of Israel Galván’s company for 10 years.

Amapola López is graduated in Translation, and specialized in Roman languages. She has worked first in the rock music scene with Spanish bands. Living in Sevilla, the transition to the flamenco scene was quite natural. She has been touring with Israel Galván since 2011.

Producer

Producers

(Khan Chaudhry Productions)

(Chema Blanco, Cisco Casado, Amapola López}

Farooq Chaudhry Born in Pakistan, Farooq Chaudhry enjoyed an international professional dance career in the ’80s and ’90s. He was awarded an Asian Achievement Award for his work as a dancer in 1988. After retiring from dancing in 1999 he completed an MA in arts management from City University. A year later he teamed up with Akram Khan and co-founded Akram Khan Company. As the company producer, Chaudhry puts creativity at the heart of his leadership style, forming innovative business models to support Khan’s artistic ambitions.

A Negro Producciones A Negro Producciones specialises in artistic representation and production of shows, making the bet of new discourses and staging formulas. A Negro combines experience and creativity, with carefully selected artists and productions, a key in the success of their artistic proposals. Since they started in 2003, versatility and professionalism are the assets of the A Negro team, with extensive experience in producing shows and other events, the organization of national and international tours, and the implementation of audiovisual material.

Their partnership has made the company one of the world’s most foremost and successful dance companies. In addition to his work for Akram Khan Company he became the producer for English National Ballet in October 2013. Chaudhry is a member of the GREAT Culture & Sport Advisory Board and of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Clore Leadership Programme and a witness of the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged him in a list of the world’s top hundred cultural actors and entrepreneurs. Chaudhry is a regular guest speaker in cultural entrepreneurship including the Advanced Cultural Leadership Programme at Hong Kong University and the London Business School. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from De Montfort University in 2014 for his services to dance.

An interview with Akram Khan and Israel Galván Akram Khan describes his first meeting with Israel Galván: “He came with a knife, with the intention to stab the hell out of me.” The knife, thankfully, is metaphorical, but it demonstrates the instinct of the flamenco performer: to dance their way to dominance, always wanting to outdo the competition. “He [Galván] said to me, ‘On stage, if anybody threatens me I’m going to kill them. There should be nobody on stage but me.’” It’s perhaps not the most promising start to a collaboration, but this joining of talents turned out to be a fruitful one and the show TOROBAKA is the result. As dancers, Khan and Galván actually have much in common. Both are technically awesome performers who come from classical disciplines, but whose work is distinctly contemporary and pushes boundaries of artistic form. Khan, trained in the north Indian dance form kathak, is one of the most compelling dancers of his generation, and as a choreographer he explores theatre and storytelling with his kathak roots subtly infusing the movement. Galván, from a flamenco family in Seville, is a blistering dancer who leads flamenco’s avant garde, deconstructing traditional dance and playing with narrative linearity. But there’s a deeper connection too. Flamenco is thought to share its roots with kathak, as Spain’s Romani population, who played a significant part in flamenco’s development, migrated from India via the Middle East to Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. You can see similarities between the two forms in their percussive 17

footwork and use of rhythmic cycles. But for Khan, that link alone was not enough to persuade him to attempt a collaboration. When it was first suggested by a producer that he go to see Galván perform, he was suspect. “When I heard it was flamenco I thought, ‘Oh, flamenco is cool, but why are they asking me? I don’t want to do a collaboration.’” Other dancers, including Khan’s own guru, Sri Pratap Pawar, had explored the kathak/ flamenco connection before, with varying degrees of success, and Khan wasn’t keen. But then he saw Galván dance. “That changed my whole opinion,” he says. “I thought, here’s an artist who is literally destroying and deconstructing [flamenco] in his own way. He’s creating his own version, and not just in a psychological or intellectual way, he’s doing it physically. I thought, ok, I want to work with this man.” When they actually got into the studio together things soon gelled. “I felt very comfortable with Akram. It was like watching myself in a mirror,” says Galván, through a translator. Despite him speaking little English, and Khan no Spanish, they had no trouble communicating. “We could understand each other very easily through dance,” says Galván. “We could feel what the other one was feeling.” They also had a little help from Khan’s rehearsal director Jose Agudo, a Spaniard with a flamenco background who bridged the two worlds. In creating TOROBAKA, the two artists had no intention of parroting each other’s styles. “That would be the stupidest decision,” says Khan, and it’s the one, he says, that people have made in the past. “There’s no way that Israel could do kathak better than a kathak dancer could,” says Khan. “And who am I to do one year of flamenco and then try to do it on stage?” They had to find another way. “We

were discussing it and decided that the rule should be that he does kathak in a way that no kathak dancer could do it, and I’ve got to do flamenco in a way no flamenco dancer could do it,” Khan says. “Because I have skills they don’t have.” The outcome is a show that’s very much about dance and the joy of movement; about two cultures, two languages, two artists and what happens when they come together. For Khan, this is not exactly new territory. He’s an inveterate collaborator, creating two-handers with Sylvie Guillem (Sacred Monsters), Juliette Binoche (In-I) and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (zero degrees). But for Galván, this was something untried. “It’s the first time I’ve shared everything 50 percent with another dancer,” he says. “I’ve danced with other people, but I was always the leader.” Although artistically they found a shared vision, their energies and ideas came from very different places. While Galván’s instinct is a fighting one – he floors his audience – he likened Khan’s performance to a gift to his audience, an offering. “Akram in his way of working is much more relaxed and in some way more peaceful,” says Galván. “I learned that I was very far from that spirit – much more tense or violent somehow. Working with Akram made me take it easy.” Conversely, working with Galván turned Khan into “a warrior”, Khan reports. “A peaceful warrior,” he adds. The two men found much to laugh about in the studio – not least mocking themselves being seen as two maestros engaged in a battle of egos – and some of this humour and absurdity has found its way into the piece, with a touch of the surreal, mostly thanks to Galván. “Half his

brain is wired like David Lynch, the other half is wired like Stanley Kubrick,” says Khan. “So you can imagine what kind of world we’ve created.” When it comes to channelling legendary film directors, Khan identifies more with Satyajit Ray, Wim Wenders and Terrence Malick. “What I’m saying is my brain is wired to find balance in chaos,” he says. “His brain is wired to mess all my balance up, to completely unbalance the piece.” The title, TOROBAKA, comes from the Spanish words for bull (toro) and cow (vaca), sacred animals in Spain and India. So, in this situation, who is the cow and who is the bull? “We are both sometimes the cow and sometimes the bull,” says Galván, sounding very balanced. “That’s a condition if you want to have a real conversation between two equals. It’s necessary that you go to the other person’s position and vice versa.”

Which hardly sounds like fighting talk. The knives have been put away, and these two dancers have clearly rubbed off on one another. Lyndsey Winship, a London-based arts journalist and web producer, is dance critic for the Evening Standard. (This interview was originally from Sadler’s Wells Theatre programme for TOROBAKA)

Photos by Jean Louis Fernandez

credits

Created and Performed by Israel Galván and Akram Khan Music Arranged and Performed by David Azurza B C Manjunath Bobote Christine Leboutte

Co-produced by

MC2: Grenoble

Mercat de les Flors Barcelona

Sadler’s Wells London

Lighting Designer Michael Hulls Costume Designer Kimie Nakano

Théâtre de la Ville Paris

Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

Festival Montpellier Danse 2015

Onassis Cultural Centre - Athens

Sound Pedro León Rehearsal Director Jose Agudo Production Coordinator Amapola López Technical Director Richard Fagan Technical Manager Pablo Pujol

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay Singapore

Prakriti Foundation

Stadsschouwburg / Flamenco Biënnale Amsterdam Nederland

FEST/SPIEL/HAUS/ ST/POELTEN/ Concertgebouw Brugge

Lighting Stéphane Déjours Tour Managers Amapola López and Nawshin Snigdha

Romaeuropa Festival

Producers Farooq Chaudhry (Khan Chaudhry Productions) and Chema Blanco & Cisco Casado (A Negro Producciones)