December 2021

Fifteen BA3 dancers were selected to take part in a 2-week research and development residency for Akram Khan’s new production, Jungle Book Reimagined.

What did they do?

Maven Khoo, expert in Bharatanatyam performance and Khan’s primary collaborator, lead the dancers through a concentrated daily technical session of either ballet or contemporary. Akram created working pairs, teaching the technical skills of Brazilian Jui Jitsu, a form of martial art based on ground fighting and submission holds. This cultivated the dancer’s contact skills as they learnt about technical and efficient use of force, allowing for directed movement to overcome physical strength. The dancers were taught to master side mounts, full mounts, close guards, half guards, shrimps, hip thrusts, butterflies, and escape moves, and later combined them in their own ‘free-wrestling’. Then the creative research begun, learning ‘father’ repertoire and moving into creative tasks.

This work is based on the Rudyard Kipling 1894 children’s novel, The Jungle Book, in which different ‘fables’ uncover moral lessons through the anthropomorphism of large animals from Seoni, India, where the story is set. Thus, dancers undertook detailed research into animal behaviours, focussing on the curious feminine regality of panther, Bagheera and the sleepy inelegancies of bear, Baloo. Using this analytical knowledge as roots for movement, dancers evolved their characters, merging the animal with the human by selecting traits that they could identify with and embody.

Developing this further, dancers researched morphing between human and animal states. How would this look? How would this feel? How painful would the experience be? Working towards a morphing sequence, dancers created poses responding to language such as: Bird, Lizard, Peacock, Giraffe, Hunter with bow and arrow, Man that is in rage and Man that is shocked, ending with an Ape pose and impression.

What did they learn?

Khan’s professionalism, commitment and insight inspired dancers throughout the process, asking them for more than impressive movement, asking them to make an emotional connection with their audience. Another focus for the AK Company was supporting the dancers to fully immerse themselves in choreography, offering purpose and intention with every movement. This has inspired a deeper commitment to presence in motion. Dancer’s report Akram (Man/Myth/Legend) to be very intense, very open and very honest, sharing many of his values and principles with them over the two weeks as well as bringing his young son to rehearsals. One such principles was his ‘engagement’ to his choreography, as supposed to marriage, which allows him to continually improve and evolve his methods without becoming defensive or stagnant. Dancers felt that both Akram and Mavin made efforts to connect with them individually, unafraid to feel love for their dancers as well as their artform.

Akram’s research, development and creation now continues in London, where he has asked BA3 dancer, Ella Roberts, to work as an apprentice to the project, joining NSCD alumni Max Revell among others.