Akram Khan: The Fury of Beautiful Things

The Akram Dance Company: groundbreaking interdisciplinary dance with contributions by iconic sculptors, writers and musicians

Founded 20 years ago in London by the dancer and choreographer Akram Khan (born 1974) and the producer Farooq Chaudhry, the Akram Khan Dance Company has become one of the most dynamic troupes on the international contemporary dance scene. Trained at the Kathak Dance School, Khan has created an innovative choreographic language that fuses the vocabulary of traditional Indian dance with contemporary dance. His performances also feature collaborators from a vast array of disciplines: he has collaborated with the dancer Sylvie Guillem, the actress Juliette Binoche, the artists Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, the choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Israël Galvan and Kylie Minogue, among others.

This beautifully illustrated book is the first monograph on Khan, appraising two decades of his ceaseless production and the 24 plays created by the Akram Khan Dance Company since its foundation.

THE AKRAM KHAN COMPANY - FOUNDED IN LONDON THROUGH THE PARTNERSHIP OF DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER AKRAM KHAN AND PRODUCER FAROOQ CHAUDHRY - HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST DYNAMIC DANCE COMPANIES ON THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY SCENE FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES.
ORIGINALLY TRAINED IN KATHAK DANCE, AKRAM KHAN HAS CREATED A DEEPLY INNOVATIVE CHOREOGRAPHIC LANGUAGE BY MERGING THE VOCABULARIES OF CLASSICAL INDIAN AND CONTEMPORARY DANCE. HIS WORKS ALWAYS OFFER AN ENCOUNTER WITH OTHER CULTURES, OTHER MYTHS. THE STORIES HE TELLS US DRAW ON ARTISTIC AND HUMAN SOURCES THAT BLEND INTO A UNIVERSAL MELTING POT.
THIS MONOGRAPH - THE FIRST DEVOTED TO ONE OF THE MAJOR CHOREOGRAPHERS OF HIS GENERATION - ALLOWS US TO PLUNGE THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS INTO THE HEART OF THE TWENTY-SIX WORKS AKRAM HAS CREATED SINCE THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED.
THE TEXT, WRITTEN BY AKRAM AND FAROOQ, SHARES THEIR INSPIRATIONS AND THEIR VISION OF THE WORLD THROUGH THE CREATIVE PROCESS.