22 *** Thursday 4 April 2019 Arts ‘We can’t just tell one community’s stories’

‘The Sadler’s dancer . For Tamara Ahead of his new TV Rojo at the , team have he choreographed a stunning series, Akram Khan set in a condemned garment factory made a home stafed by migrant workers. for dance And his fame extends far beyond tells Neil Armstrong the dance world thanks to his companies poignant and moving piece performed about our universal from all over at the opening ceremony of the the world… 2012 Olympics commemorating the urge to dance and his victims of the 2005 terrorist bombings You have in . reservations about Indian Given his past collaborations, has come knocking, I the Royal Ballet people there. wonder. “No. No, they haven’t.” I don’t know Would he like them to? He hesitates here’s a saying that for the frst time in our conversation dancing is the vertical how many and then chooses his words carefully. expression of a Indian “I don’t know how to answer that horizontal desire, and one. I love working with the English acclaimed dancer and people go to National Ballet. I think the Royal Ballet choreographer Akram the Royal is…” long pause “…an interesting Khan does not necessarily disagree. venue. It’s an incredible space and it’s T“Sex and dance go together for Ballet’ got an amazing legacy but I’ve only a reason,” he says. “Animals use worked for the English National Ballet movement in their courtship rituals and I really love working with them. to attract a mate. Dancing is the “What (the artistic most animalistic human thing. [It] director at Sadler’s Wells, which has releases a chemical burst of pleasure, a close association with the ENB) and an endorphin rush that also happens the Sadler’s team have done is make during orgasm.” a home for dance companies from all The For Sex episode of Why Do around the world – Africa, Asia. It’s We Dance?, the new Sky Arts fve- part documentary series that Khan presents, includes what continuity announcers usually describe as “scenes of an adult nature” and features works that you’re unlikely to see on Strictly any time soon, including some that are performed naked. Indeed, Khan’s mother won’t be seeing it ever. “I haven’t told her about the sex episode and I’m not going to,” he admits. “She thinks there are just four episodes. She’d be horrifed. She’d ban me from the house.” He does an impression of her: “He used to be such a lovely, innocent boy…” However, there is plenty for Mrs Khan to enjoy in the rest of this ambitious series. Each flm explores a diferent motivation to dance – To ITALIA MUIR; SKY ALASTAIR RII SCHROER; Belong; To Tell Stories; To Touch the Soul; To Provoke and For Sex. There Dance master: “I like the Jean Cocteau quote Mahabharata and toured the world for Leading question: a extraordinary. There’s something very are contributions from leading Akram Khan, above, ‘History is truth that becomes an two years. He credits this period with scene from Khan’s special about the audience. You have choreographers, performers and is one of the illusion. Mythology is an illusion that shaping the person he is today but it new TV series, Indian people there. I don’t know how critics from all over the world and country’s most becomes reality’. Outwitting The Devil wasn’t all art and high culture. Why Do We Dance? many Indian people go to the Royal sumptuously flmed specially staged celebrated is partly about the fact that we, as a “I was really naughty,” he says. “I Ballet. dance sequences. performers and species, have a communal sense of was a teenager, a rebel. Every moment “John Berger [the writer and critic] “I’ve loved doing it,” Khan says. choreographers; dementia. We have forgotten our past.” that I wasn’t actually in the theatre, said, ‘Never again shall a single story “What the series shows is the extent on stage at the Khan was born in Wimbledon in I was annoying the s--- out of my be told as though it were the only one’. of dance’s reach. It’s global. Everyone Roundhouse in 1974 to Bangladeshi parents for whom chaperone. Bless her. We’re still in I stand by that because I feel we need dances. People dance at weddings, London earlier the memory of ’s 1971 war touch and every time I see her now, I to tell everyone’s stories, not just one funerals, parties, in temples, in streets. this year, right of independence was fresh. The family ask for her forgiveness. community’s stories.” They dance to revolt, to appease. It’s lived above the restaurant that his “I was a bloody nightmare. I stole a We fnish on a lighter note. He’s a everywhere.” father ran. Khan started to dance at the car. In Australia. A bunch of us – there renowned workaholic. What does he Khan, 44, is a charismatic and age of just three. were several of us who took it in turns do to relax? engaging presenter and says he would “I was shy with words but I loved to to do the same role – we stole one of “This is tragic but once a month like to do more TV as age inevitably be the centre of attention and I could the actors’ cars and went down to the my six-year-old daughter takes my constrains his dancing (although his do that with dancing,” he says. beach. phone and flms me wearing a wig work as a choreographer goes from It was a transformational moment “In LA, I stole some batteries and a and costume and miming to one of the strength to strength). for him when he won a school talent security guard caught me. The police characters from Disney. I’ve played His show Xenos – about Indian 4,000 years ago. The show premieres competition, busting out some Michael were called but let me of because they Moana, I’ve played Elsa from Frozen. soldiers in the First World War; one in July in Stuttgart and will come to Jackson moves to a Five Star song. could see how scared I was. I was very Even – bloody hell – Barbie, for my critic said it was “a work of defning Sadler’s Wells next year. “It was the frst moment that people good at apologising.” sins. I hope it never gets out.” greatness” – fnishes next year and he Khan is particularly interested in my class knew my name,” he says. Fortunately for him, and us, he He also adores flms. He reels of a Why Do We says that will be his last full-length solo in a passage of the poem in which “‘Hey, you’re Akram right? You were was far more interested in dance than list of favourite directors – “Kore-eda, Dance? will be piece. But there is plenty more to look Gilgamesh enters a cedar forest good’. Up until then, I had been a delinquency and, after setting up his Iñárritu, Cuarón” – all known for made available as forward to. and cuts down trees, relating it to shadow. If I could disappear in school, own company, became one of the producing the sort of chewy works an online box set He is speaking to climate change, an issue which deeply I would.” country’s most celebrated and exciting you might expect a serious, well-read, The Daily on April 29 and in what is supposed to be his concerns him, the more so as a father His mother had encouraged him to performers and choreographers, Cocteau-quoting, innovative artist Telegraph begins airing on lunch break during rehearsals for his to two young children with his wife train in Kathak, traditional classical capable of selling out shows all over to enjoy. “Oh, and I love the Marvel Sky Arts on new production , Yuko Inoue. Indian dance, and at the age of 13 he the world. flms,” he adds. “All of them. , Outwitting the Devil Tuesday April 30 Thor inspired by the ancient Babylonian “That piece of the story is about was cast in Peter Brooks’ nine-hour He has worked with actress Juliette the whole lot. I go to watch them by at 9pm poem Gilgamesh, which was written mankind destroying nature,” he says. production of the Sanskrit epic The Binoche, singer and myself if I have to.” A great karaoke party with a superannuated Bez

Pop Giorgio Moroder Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith ★★★★★ By James Hall n Love Saves the Day, Tim Lawrence’s I excellent history of disco, Italian dance music pioneer Giorgio Moroder is

described as an “anonymous THORNE / REDFERNS STEVE alchemist who knew how to Lit up: Giorgio Moroder is touring for the frst time at 78 turn base vinyl into a gold record”. The second half of He was ostensibly playing a live music template that’s this sentence remains true keyboards but I’m not sure becoming increasingly today: having practically how much he actually did popular as the original invented disco in 1975 with beyond provide the vibe. It generation of pop stars and Donna Summer’s Love to felt more like an extremely producers age. Nile Rodgers Love You Baby, Moroder good karaoke party than has been doing it for a went on to write or produce a concert. Amid neon while. Even this summer’s hundreds of pop hits and graphics, we were treated Stevie Wonder Hyde Park flm soundtracks. But any to banger after banger. concert is being marketed notion that he remains an Together in Electric Dreams as a Song Party, its poster “anonymous alchemist” and Flashdance... What a bedecked with – yes – was blown out of the water Feeling were followed by retro-futuristic neon lights. by this, his frst live tour. Top Gun’s Take My Breath But at least Rodgers Aged 78, Moroder took to Away and Danger Zone. and Wonder still play the stage in a silver bomber Moroder’s brilliance was instruments. Moroder jacket and matching aviator in evidence beneath the really reminded me of Tony shades, arms aloft, his white glitzy façade. The throbbing Blackburn doing a nightclub moustache taking on a blue Chase from 1978’s Midnight PA or a superannuated phosphorescent hue under Express must rank as one of Bez, the Happy Mondays the Eighties strobe lighting. the most evocative pieces member who did little more A collaboration with Daft of flm music ever. And it’s than jig about. I can see Punk in 2013 and his frst doubtful that Gorillaz’s his set working well on a solo album for 23 years On Melancholy Hill would balmy Hyde Park evening in 2015 have given him exist without Moroder’s or perhaps headlining a Johnny Cash-style late soundtrack for The Never Glastonbury’s party-focused career boost. But this was Ending Story. Meanwhile West Holts stage. But in this a curious gig. Moroder tracks of Summer and David all-seated venue it at times stood behind a waist- Bowie singing over live felt more like a hen night. height screen front-of- versions of MacArthur Park stage, surrounded by a and , respectively, Cat People Until tomorrow. Tickets: live band, string section were used to great efect. giorgiomoroder.com and troupe of four singers. Moroder was tapping into