“We are  now living in unprecedented and uncertain times, not only for our  species but for all species on this planet. And the root cause of this  conundrum is because we have forgotten our connection to our home, our  planet. We all inhabit it, we all take from it, and we all build on it,  but we have forgotten to return our respect for it.”
– Akram Khan

Akram Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined is  a new work based on the much-loved story by Rudyard Kipling. With a new  sense of urgency, Akram has reinterpreted this known story from another  perspective, through the lens of today’s children – those who will  inherit our world and become our future storytellers.

Embedded in the roots of Jungle Book is the deep threat that  mankind poses towards nature. Akram and his team have reimagined the  journey of Mowgli through the eyes of a refugee caught in a world  devastated by the impact of climate change. They tell the story of a  child who will help us to listen again, not to our voices but to the  voices of the natural world that we, the modern world, try to silence. Jungle Book reimagined speaks to all generations as a step to remind, to relearn and to reimagine a new world together.

Source: Akram Khan Company

More information: akramkhancompany.net

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated  and respected dance artists of today. In just over 19 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 XENOS, Until the Lions, Kaash, iTMOi (in the mind of igor), DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zero degrees.

As 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, choreographers/dancers Sidi Larbi  Cherkaoui and Israel Galván, singer Kylie Minogue, indie rock band  Florence and the Machine, 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 highlight of his career was the creation of a  section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that was  received with unanimous acclaim.

As a choreographer, Khan has developed a close collaboration with  English National Ballet and its Artistic Director Tamara Rojo. He  created the short piece Dust, part of the Lest We Forget programme, which led to an invitation to create his own critically acclaimed version of the iconic romantic ballet Giselle.

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 eight Critics’ Circle  National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in  2005. He is also an Honorary Graduate of University of London as well as  Roehampton and De Montfort Universities, and an Honorary Fellow of  Trinity Laban.

Khan is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London and Curve, Leicester.

Source: Akram Khan Company

More information: akramkhancompany.net

Juliette Belanger is a director and editor, mainly in the field of live performance (theater, dance, music, etc.).

It was during her first years of study in Métiers des Arts et de la Culture, which she began in Lille in 2018 and finished in Paris in 2021, that Juliette developed her skills and taste for images and video creation. 

She soon became intrigued by the world of live performance, and her first professional experiences began in 2019. Between theater festivals, companies and other production associations, she discovers and defends the stakes of video for the dissemination of live performance. She completed her university studies in 2022, taking the Licence Professionnelle Techniques et Pratiques Artistiques du montage at Lyon II.  

She discovered the world of dance in 2023, working with Fabien Plasson, video director at the Pôle Image de la Maison de la Danse. 

Today, she produces and edits video footage of theater and dance performances for various festivals, companies and cultural events, while continuing to create various video content around the performing arts (reports on creations, artist portraits, etc.).

In July 1999 in the foyer of the Queen  Elizabeth Hall in London, an animated and curiosity-filled conversation  took place between the young gifted dancer/choreographer Akram Khan and  an ambitious former dancer and just recently graduated arts manager  Farooq Chaudhry. That conversation laid the foundation stone for a  dynamic collaboration, culminating in the creation of Akram Khan Company  one year later.

Inspired by Akram Khan’s early training in the Indian classical dance  form Kathak, and the hybrid language that organically emerged when  Akram’s kathak training encountered contemporary dance in his teens, a  vision began to form, fuelled by a desire to learn and create through  collaboration with the very best people across all the disciplines in  the arts.

The rules were simple: take risks, think big and daring, explore the  unfamiliar, avoid compromise and tell stories through dance that are  compelling and relevant, with artistic integrity.

In just over twenty years Akram Khan Company  is now undisputedly one of the foremost innovative dance companies in  the world. The programmes range from kathak and modern solos to  artist-to-artist collaborations and ensemble productions. The company  has a major international presence and enjoys busy tours that reach out  to many cultures and peoples across the globe. Akram Khan has been the  recipient of numerous international dance awards, the most notable being  an Olivier Award for his solo production DESH in 2012. A  milestone in the company’s journey was the creation of a section of the  London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in 2012. Akram Khan Company is an  associate artist at Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Mountview Academy of  Theatre Arts in London and Curve Theatre in Leicester.

Mission

Akram Khan Company produces thoughtful, provocative  and ambitious dance productions for the international stage. Akram Khan  takes human themes and works with others to take them to new and  unexpected places – embracing and collaborating with other cultures and  disciplines. The dance language in each production is rooted in Akram  Khan’s classical Kathak and modern dance training and his fascination  with storytelling. The work continually evolves to communicate ideas  that are intelligent, courageous and new, bringing with it international  acclaim and recognition as well as artistic and commercial success.

Source: Akram Khan Company

More information: akramkhancompany.net