Program notes
Gilles Delmas follows Akram Khan in the creation process of his ballet bahok, with the National Ballet of China.
After creating intimate duets with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui (zero degrees) and Sylvie Guillem (Sacred Monsters), Akram Khan once again joins forces with long-time collaborator and multi award-winning composer Nitin Sawhney, who has created an original score for bahok. Originally in collaboration with China’s classical ballet flagship company, the National Ballet of China, bahok brings together 8 dancers from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds: Chinese, Korean, Indian, South African and Spanish. As such they resemble a present day version of the tale of Babel, speaking different languages both with their bodies and tongues.
They meet in one of this globalised world’s transit zones and try to communicate, to share ‘the things they carry with them’: their experiences, their memories of their original homes, the dreams and aspirations that made them move. They are carriers. They are bahok.
Source: www.akramkhancompany.net.