Interview with Akram Khan / Choreographer
——Do you think that you would like to focus on both ends of the spectrum also, the traditional dance and the contemporary dance?
Akram: I want to take in tradition. I want to use tradition. I don’t want to expel it, because for me the tradition is so rich. But what is important is that you have to present it in a new and original way. And that’s what really takes time in creating an art. You know the funny thing is, time is moving so fast these days — we’re on computers, palm pilots, mobile phones and all of that, but there is absolutely one thing that cannot be changed in time. And that is giving birth. From past till now, it still takes nine months, and I must say that it takes nearly the same amount of time to give birth to a new piece of work. This is my opinion. You cannot speed it up. You cannot force the baby to come out. But unfortunately, in in-i, we forced it and created it in just four months. When it was premiered in The National Theater in UK last year, it wasn’t at all ready. So I must say, this is still a work-in-progress.
——When I saw the show in Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, I was a bit astonished because Juliette Binoche’s dancing was quite better than my expectations, although frankly it is not a professional leveled dance.
Akram: She is refining her dance everyday, but yes of course she is not a professional dancer. You cannot create a true dancer in four months. And neither did I think that I could pretend to be a professional actor in four months. That’s not the point with this piece. What we wanted to do was, just trust our faith, trust our instinct, and dive into the unknown with curiosity. Hoping that we would end up finding a new medium, where dance and theater could work together.
——At the starting point, did you have any vague vision of that goal?
Akram: No, not at all. So when the promoter asked us, “Okay so the show is going to be bloody expensive, what is it going to be about?” Juliette and I were like, “We don’t fuckin’ know.”[Laughs] We didn’t have the slightest clue, and it was so scary. But at the same time, that’s exactly why we were so excited about it.
——Yeah, because you two are the fearless daredevils.
Akram: Yes we might be quite daring. But you have to be careful, because it is not about showing that you are daring. I know that some people think about in-i in that way, that we are just trying to show off how daring we are, but It’s not like that. It’s just that we really felt that we could share and exchange from the experience of each other’s world. She wanted to dance. I wanted to act. And each of us had a little seed of curiosity growing inside. Which made us step into the unknown.
——As a consequence, you two caused a stir both in the audience and the critic. Very mixed reviews, in a love-it-or-hate-it kind of way.
Akram: I know, and that is the whole point. In this world, you either win big or loose big. Otherwise you just play safe — and that brings us back full circle to the right beginning of the conversation. I am not willing to play anything safe.
