Choreography for Solo Performance (MU40370O)

'Dust' - Akram Khan Morgan. D, (2014), Akram Khan and ENB dancers in Khans 'Dust', Accessed: 20,11,21 'Dust' was first performed in 2014 at the Barbican, London. The piece is part of The English National Ballet's production 'Lest We Forget' Which commemorates the anniversary of the First World War. Akram Khans 'Dust' is about women's roles and the empowerment of women, as they became the main workforce in the country. (Akram Khan Company, 2015) Khan said "I didn't want to show the men dying in the trenches literally. I wanted to reflect that even though people are dying, the women working in the factories still have to build weapons for the war." (Sherstiuk, 2017) Khan wanted to show the strength of the women during this time and found the shift in gender roles an interesting choreographic avenue. He realised the women would have known they would be letting go of fathers, husbands, sons and brothers yet were making weapons t...

To begin creating movement I looked at the choreographic process of using imagery inspired by Wayne McGregor. I analysed the stimulus in detail looking at different shapes and how this could be translated into movement in the body. This really helped me think about the contrast of sharp angular lines to the soft malleable state of the water. I created small phrases of movement that used contrasting dynamics whilst finding asymmetry in the body to communicate our theme of reflections and perspectives. Throughout this creative process I also asked myself questions such as, what if this movement was a certain colour - this helped me think about different emotions I could implement behind the movement. 1 November 2021 - YouTube 8 November 2021 - YouTube I also workshopped chance choreography in our lesson and explored how I could use this to create movement I wouldn't have thought of other...

Akram Khan's KAASH was created in 2002, and is a 55 minute piece with a cast of five international dancers one male and four females (the piece also includes Khan himself). Khan chose not to use dancers classically trained in Indian dance as he feels they already have boundaries that can be difficult to break away from. (Burt, 2016) The musical score was commissioned by Nitin Sawhney and set design by sculptor Anish Kapoor. The word 'KAASH' in Hindu translates to 'what if' and the piece explores themes of aspects of the Hindu God Shiva. The piece is split up into three different sections that explore these aspects such as Shiva's meditative nature, cosmic violence, and the eternal cycle of creation and destruction which he initiates. (Burt, 2016)The piece takes themes from Indian mythology but through development also draws upon European and Indian dance traditions. 'KAASH' is a piece aimed to continue building the bridge between the worlds of contempora...