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zero degrees (2005) zero degrees is the reference point where everything begins…and everything ends" - akram khan Premiere: 8 July 2005, Sadler's Wells, London An exciting collaboration between Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi, this is an opportunity to see these remarkable artists working with sculptor Antony Gormley and composer Nitin Sawhney. Khan and Larbi first met i n 2000 when they quickly discovered strong similarities in their work. Both are sons of Islamic families brought up in Europe, and both draw upon this meeting of cultures, combining complex Indian Kathak dance with the speed and precision of contemporary movements. zero degrees was borne out of their longing to create work together, and follows them on a journey to seek the reference point, the source, the '0' at life's core. Inspired by their own dual identities, the two search for this middle point throu gh polar opposites; becoming/death, light/dark, chaos/order. Creating the environment for this journey is artist Antony Gormley, most famous for his 'Angel of the North' sculpture. Working closely with the two dancers, his design will reflect the concept of duality explored in zero degrees. Specially commissioned music is by composer/producer Nitin Sawnhey. This is a rare chance to see four of today's greatest artists join forces. Artistic Directors, Choreographers and Performers Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Composer Nitin Sawhney Lighting Designer Mikki Kunttu Sculptor Anton Gormley Costume Designer – Kei Ito Musicians : Laura Anstee - cello Coordt Linke percussion Faheem Mazhar - vocals Alies Sluiter violin Producers Farooq Chaudhry (Akram Khan Company) and Lieven Thyrion (Les Ballets C. de la B.) Dramaturge - Guy Cools Production Manager Fabiana Piccioli Sound Engineer - Nicolas Faure Stage Manager - Natan Rosseel Casts - Steve Haynes Text Akram Khan Duration: 75 minutes Akram Khan Native name MBE আআআআআ আআআআআআ আআআ Born Akram Hossain Khan 29 July 1974 (age 39) Wimbledon, Wandsworth, London, England Residence Wimbledon, Wandsworth, London, England Nationality Ethnicity Education British Bengali Contemporary Dance, Performing Arts De Montfort University Northern School of Contemporary Dance Alma mater Occupation Dancer, choreographer Years active 1987–present Organization Akram Khan Company Style Religion Contemporary dance, Kathak Islam GENERAL Zero degrees started as a desire of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to dance a duet with British-Bengali choreographer and dancer Akram Khan. Both are sons of Islamic families brought up in Europe, and both draw upon this meeting of cultures, combining complex Indian kathak dance with the speed and precision of contemporary movements. Inviting Antony Gormley for the scenography and Nitin Sawhney for the live performed music; zero degrees became a place of transformation. Inspired by the place where one thing morphs into another, the grey zone between one thing and the next, the degrees where water becomes ice, the line where life becomes death. Zero degrees follows Cherkaoui and Khan on a journey to seek the reference point, the source, the '0' at life's core. Inspired by their own dual identities, the two search for this middle point through polar opposites; becoming/death, light/dark, chaos/order. Zero degrees talks about borders and how blurry they actually are. With only two lifelike dummies, copies of Cherkaoui and Khan, the emptiness on stage permits the audience to see many symbols of division and unity within the choreography. The dummies are like alter egos, sometimes they are oppressors, sometimes guards or dead bodies. Zero degrees is a performance about the fragility of a human life, about yin and yang. The piece has won a Helpmann Award in Australia and was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the U.K. SIDI LARBI CHERKAOUI Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s debut as a choreographer was in 1999 with Andrew Wale’s ‘contemporary musical’, Anonymous Society. Since then he has made more than 20 full-fledged choreographic pieces and picked up a slew of awards, including the Fringe First award in Edinburgh, the special prize at the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, the promising choreographer prize at the Nijinsky Awards in Monte Carlo, the Movimentos award in Germany and the Helpmann award from Australia in 2007. In 2008 Sadler’s Wells named him an Associate Artist and in 2009 the Alfred Toëpfer Stiftung conferred its Kairos prize to him in recognition of his artistic philosophy and his quest for cultural dialogue. In 2008 and 2011 he was declared Choreographer of the Year by the dance magazine Tanz. While Cherkaoui’s initial pieces were made as a core member of the Belgian collective, Les Ballets C. de la B. – Rien de Rien (2000), Foi (2003) and Tempus Fugit (2004) – he also undertook parallel projects that both expanded and consolidated his artistic vision. Ook (2000) was born from a workshop for mentally disabled actors held by Theater Stap in Turnhout with choreographer Nienke Reehorst; D’avant (2002) from an encounter with longstanding artistic partner Damien Jalet, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola and Luc Dunberry of Sasha Waltz & Guests company; and zero degrees (2005) with friend and choreographer Akram Khan. He has worked with a variety of theatres, opera houses and ballet companies, but from 2004–2009 Cherkaoui was based in Antwerp where he was artist in residence at Toneelhuis, the theatre that produced Myth (2007) and Origine (2008). In 2008 Cherkaoui premiered Sutra at Sadler’s Wells. This award-winning collaboration with Antony Gormley and the Shaolin monks continues to tour the world to great critical acclaim. After his first commissioned piece in North America, Orbo Novo (for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet) and a series of duets such as Faun (which premiered at Sadler’s Wells as part of In the Spirit of Diaghilev) and Dunas with flamenco danseuse María Pagés (both in October 2009), he launched his new company Eastman in 2010, resident at deSingel International Arts Campus. Spring 2010 saw him reunited with co-choreographer Damien Jalet and Antony Gormley to make Babel(words), the third part of a triptych that began with Foi and Myth. That same year he created Rein, a duet featuring Guro Nagelhus Schia and Vebjørn Sundby, as well as Play, a duet with kuchipudi danseuse Shantala Shivalingappa and Bound, a duet for Shanell Winlock and Gregory Maqoma as part of Southern Bound Comfort. Babel(words) triumphed at the 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards, winning best new dance production and outstanding achievement in dance for Antony Gormley. 2011 saw the creation of TeZukA, a new piece for 15 performers about the works of the master of Japanese manga, Osamu Tezuka. Cherkaoui also created Labyrinth for Dutch National Ballet. In 2012 he created Puz/zle with 11 dancers and the Corsican men’s choir A Filetta, Lebanese singer Fadia Tomb El-Hage and Japanese musician Kazunari Abe. He also helmed the choreography for Anna Karenina, the film by Joe Wright, featuring ao Keira Knightley and Jude Law. Akram Khan has attracted some impressive collaborators in the past - the sculptor Anish Kapoor and the composer Nitin Sawhney for his dance Kaash, the writer Hanif Kureishi for Ma. But the line-up for his latest project, Zero Degrees, comes yet more garlanded with names. Not only is his co-choreographer and performer, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, (who ranks with Khan as one of Europe's most charismatic dance talents) but the work has designs by the sculptor Antony Gormley and yet another score by Sawhney. It's the creative team of PR fantasy.Yet what happens on stage during the duet's 75 minutes has nothing to do with selfserving celebrity. Zero Degrees began life as a private dialogue, just two dancers swapping ideas in the studio, and what makes it so riveting in performance is that the intimacy which Khan and Cherkaoui discovered in rehearsal is etched deep into the finished product. The narrative core of the duet is based on a journey Khan made from Bangladesh to India. He reports that he was harassed by guards on the border because he found himself sharing his train carriage with a dead man. Yet as Cherkaoui narrates the opening chapter of the anecdote with Khan, the unity of their voices, their shared gestures even their hesitations, makes it seem as though they lived through the story together. A similarly profound a connection operates in the dancing that frames the text. Not only is the choreography itself is a kind of journey, as the two men trade moves from their different dance backgrounds (classical Kathak and European tanztheater respectively) but along the way the duet also embodies parallel themes of power and submission, of belonging and not belonging, of knowing yourself and knowing another person. The first section is a ritual of communion as the two men stand head to head, while their arms fold and unfold. The dance is never far from tension and contrast. Khan with his sculpted body and classical precision often forces the pace, carving tracks relentlessly across the stage. Cherkaoui seems to yield but slips into his own emotional space. The unfolding drama between them is transfixing not only because they are superb dancers but because their performance is given such strange and potent definition by its staging. Sawhney's score is a superbly eloquent piece of theatre music, powerful without being macho, beautiful without a shiver of mawkishness. Gormley's contribution is much quirkier: a pair of life-size silicon dummies that function as rough doubles of the dancers. Inert but curiously emotive, these figures spend most of the duet just standing witness. But every now and then they are manhandled into the choreography, adding to a work whose overall tone is deliberately odd, a mix of stunning virtuosity and freakish flourishes. The dance is also full of dangling questions. When Khan gets round to telling the last chapter of his narrative his voice trails away unsure of the moral of his story. The choreography in sympathy also dissipates into a series of false endings. Finally it ends with Cherkaoui cradling Khan's dummy and singing a soft Indian vocal line, while Khan dances himself to a stuttering poignant standstill. It's a conclusion that feels profound and perfunctory and it encapsulates the logic of the whole piece. Unfinished, hazy, occasionally introvert, it has the look of a work in progress. But somehow these four artists have figured out that it's only by being provisional and exploratory that Zero Degrees gets as close as it does to the big themes - of love and loneliness, life and death. Zero degrees explores borders - between countries, cultures and, most importa ntly, between life and death. It challenges, prompts and inspires, in a seamless fusion of dance styles, music and contemporary art. It has nothing to do with self -serving celebrity. Zero Degrees began life as a private dialouge with only 2 dancer. Sources: http://www.akramkhancompany.net/html/akram_production.p hp?productionid=7 http://en.wikipedia.or g/wiki/Akram_Khan_(dancer ) http://www.east-man.be/en/people/161/Sidi -LarbiCherkaoui http://www.east-man.be/en/14/44/Zero -Degrees