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Saturday, March 2, 2019, 8pm Sunday, March 3, 2019, 5pm Zellerbach Hall Akram Khan Company XENOS — World Premiere: Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, February 21, 2018 — Directed, choreographed, and performed by Akram Khan

Dramaturg Ruth Little Lighting Designer Michael Hulls Original Music Score and Sound Design Vincenzo Lamagna Set Designer Mirella Weingarten Costume Designer Kimie Nakano Written by Jordan Tannahill Rehearsal Directors Mavin Khoo and Nicola Monaco Musicians Nina Harries ( double bass and vocals ), BC Manjunath ( percussion and konnakol ), Tamar Osborn ( baritone saxophone ), Aditya Prakash ( vocals ), Clarice Rarity ( violin )

is performance will be performed without an intermission and will last approximately 65 minutes.

Cal Performances’ 2018 –19 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

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Producer Farooq Chaudhry Technical Director Richard Fagan Production Manager John Valente Stage Manager Marek Pomocki Lighting Engineer Stéphane Déjours Sound Engineer Julien Deloison Technician Russell Parker Project/Tour Manager Mashitah Omar Props Louise Edge from LFX Props & Special FX

e original music score for XENOS was devised in collaboration with Nina Harries, Andrew Maddick, BC Manjunath, Tamar Osborn, and Aditya Prakash, and contains extracts from: Requiem in D minor K. 626 (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart); Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire (traditional composition); Tu Karim (traditional composition); Chhap Tilak (Amir Khusro); Babul Mora (Nawab Wajid Ali Shah); and Naiharwa (Kabir). Commissioned by 14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England, and by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. Akram Khan’s XENOS marks his last performances as a dancer in a full-length solo piece. Co-produced by Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, e Grange Festival Hampshire, Sadler’s Wells London, New Vision Arts Festival Hong Kong, éâtre de la Ville Paris, Les éâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, National Arts Centre Ottawa, the Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival (CSIAF), Centro Cultural de Belém, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, Grec 2018 Festival de Barcelona, HELLERAU – European Center for the Arts Dresden, Tanz Köln, Edinburgh International Festival, Adelaide Festival, Festival Montpellier Danse 2018, Julidans Amsterdam, Canadian Stage Toronto, Romaeuropa Festival, Torinodanza festival/Teatro Stabile di Torino – Teatro Nazionale, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts New York, Cal Performances – University of California, Berkeley, Danse Danse Montreal, Curve Leicester. Sponsored by COLAS. Supported by Arts Council England. Akram Khan is an Associate Artist of Sadler’s Wells London and Curve Leicester. Produced during residency at the Grange Festival, Hampshire and Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens (OCC).

Special thanks to Katia Arfara and the OCC team, Michael Chance, Michael Moody, Nigel Hinds, Jenny Waldman, Sarah Goodfellow, Hervé Le Bouc, Delphine Lombard, Béatrice Abeille-Robin, Mr. and Mrs. Khan, Yuko Khan, Sayuri and Kenzo Khan, Dannii Evans, Zia Ali, Es Devlin, Zena Edwards, Tim Freke, Ronan Harrington, Daniel Hernandez, Amit Lahav, Jerome Lewis, Confucius MC, Vahakn Matossian, Camilla Power, Ella Saltmarshe, Murray Shanahan, Zahed Sultan, Temujen Gunawandera, Jess Balla, Chris Timpson, Paul Evans, Robin Leonard, Florian Stagliano.

Opposite: Photo by Jean-Louis Fernandez 1 PROGRAM NOTES

Creator’s Note more every day, like a shadow constantly fol - lowing me, haunting me, whispering to me… A story is always a rescuing operation… Do we need to tell other people’s stories in case If I’m a storyteller it’s because I listen. they vanish? Who are the ‘other’ people? Are For me, a storyteller is like a smuggler who stories of human journeys told, retold, and told gets contraband across a frontier. again, so we can eventually learn from our mis - —John Berger takes? Who are ‘we,’ a collective or many indi - viduals? What makes us human? Are we still ut of all the creations I have been human?” blessed to be involved in, XENOS is Othe one that I find to be the closest in Dramaturg’s Note line with my personal journey as an artist. Akram Khan’s XENOS asks a question that first e themes of reflection, death, rebirth, time, arose 100 years ago during the global cataclysm alienation, identity, memory, are all part of of the First World War, and has continued to this creative process, and together with some haunt our civilization ever since: what is it to be incredible collaborators, I have embarked on human when man is as a god on earth? this challenging journey to give birth to XENOS . Drawing on the archival traces le by some Essentially, this work is a reflection of how of more than a million Indian soldiers who I feel about our world today. It is about our loss fought for the British Empire and experienced of humanity, and how, through past and present slaughter on an industrial scale on its many wars, we are yet again confronted by the burn - fronts, XENOS is a lament for the body in war, ing question of what it is to be human. How can and a memento mori for our own times of we, as humans, have such ability to create ex - violent estrangement from one another and traordinary and beautiful things from our imag - our world. ination, and equally, our immense ability to e Great War was fought between nations, create and commit violence and horrors beyond but its acts and outcomes were centered in the our imagination. individual human body. For all its infamous bat - Prometheus saw this in mankind before we, tles, it was a war of exhaustion, labor, discom - as a species, ever recognized it. fort, and boredom, punctuated by indescribable —Akram Khan periods of carnage. It was a war of the hands, from the endless work of entrenchment to the Title and eme digging of graves and tending of wounds, from e title XENOS means “stranger” or “foreigner” the bayonet charge to the laying of barbed in Greek. Akram Khan and his world-class team wire and communications lines, the lugging of of collaborators draw this new solo work from provisions, the manufacture of artillery, and its the archives of the 20th century, unearthing relentless dispatch over hundreds of miles of in - the experience of colonial soldiers in the First crementally shiing front lines. World War. e text for XENOS , by acclaimed Canadian Over 4 million non-white men were mobi - playwright Jordan Tannahill, gives voice to the lized by the European and American armies shell-shocked dream of a colonial Indian soldier during the conflict. Around 1.5 million of them in no-man’s land. Many of the sepoys who died were from India, mostly peasant-warriors from in conflict were buried abroad, while for those North and North-Western India, who fought who returned home, oen mutilated and trau - and died in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. matized, another form of erasure followed, as In service to the myths of Empire, dislocated their stories were interred in archives following from their homelands and cultures, their stories the rise of Indian nationalism and the rejection have until recently remained in shadow. of colonial rule. Separated from their own his - As Khan himself writes: “I will investigate tories, homelands, and countrymen, they be - specific questions that confront me more and came xenoi .

 PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

XENOS reveals the beauty and horror of the Message from Colas human condition in its portrait of an Indian Who decides to put a rifle in the hands of a dancer whose skilled body becomes an instru - dancer? Who takes hold of a single destiny and ment of war. ‘X’ is no man and everyman, the decides to break it? For his last solo work, Akram unknown and the eternal soldier, alone in a Khan embodies the voice of Indian soldiers en - foreign land, a stranger to himself and to an gaged in WWI, anonymous soldiers killed in the enemy he does not know. XENOS is a portrait trenches, confronted with the absurdity and ran - of Homo deus brought back to his human ori - domness of a fight that was not theirs. gins in clay and fire. In the end we surrender Dedicated to the forgotten soldiers of all wars, not to gods, tradition, or empire, but to the XENOS reflects Khan’s characteristic style. From earth itself. the story of an individual slowly emerges the Akram Khan’s movement language shis be - question of the role that history plays in the de - tween classical kathak and contemporary dance velopment of humanity. What do we learn from on Mirella Weingarten’s precipitous and sym - our tragedies? Even more than in his other bolic set. His sepoy is a warrior-child, victim- works, Khan’s body is a vector of thought, point - perpetrator, maker and destroyer of myth, ing us to a perpetual question: the two facets of defying categories of duty, loyalty, and gender. the human condition, one noble and one black. XENOS takes place on the border between East Colas and Akram Khan Company have been and West, past and present, mythology and paving a path together for almost 10 years now. technology, where humanity still stands in won - I met Akram in London before I had ever seen der and disarray. his work. at evening, we talked about our Direct experience of conflict in the First respective journeys, our lives, as well as the World War is no longer known on earth. With meaning and value of the social link that roads the death in 2011 of the last surviving combat provide. From each of our individual view - veteran, our own connection with the felt expe - points, the link between populations and peo - rience of the war is now possible only through ple seemed obvious to us. So, over the years, we indirect accounts: archival film, photographs, have shared our worlds, thus forging a close per - interviews, museum collections, and inherited sonal relationship. story fragments. But humankind has another —Hervé Le Bouc archive in art and culture: the deep and shared Chairman and CEO of Colas reservoir of memory, beauty, and the hope that we may together find our way home. —Ruth Little, dramaturg

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Akram Khan (artistic director, choreographer, ous collaborators include the National Ballet of dancer ) is one of the most celebrated and re - China, actress Juliette Binoche, ballerina Sylvie spected dance artists today. In just over 18 years Guillem, choreographers/dancers Sidi Larbi he has created a body of work that has con - Cherkaoui and Israel Galván, singer Kylie tributed significantly to the arts in the UK and Minogue, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Antony abroad. His reputation has been built on the suc - Gormley and Tim Yip, writer Hanif Kureishi, cess of imaginative, highly accessible, and rele - and composers Steve Reich, Nitin Sawhney, vant productions such as Until the Lions , Kaash , Jocelyn Pook, and Ben Frost. iTMOi (in the mind of igor), DESH , Vertical Khan’s work is recognized as being pro - Road , Gnosis, and zero degrees . foundly moving, in which his intelligently An instinctive and natural collaborator, craed storytelling is effortlessly intimate and Khan has been a magnet to world-class artists epic. Described by the Financial Times as an from other cultures and disciplines. His previ - artist “who speaks tremendously of tremendous

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS things”, a highlight of his career was the creation Michael Hulls (lighting designer ) has worked ex - of a section of the London 2012 Olympic Games clusively in dance for the past 20 years, particu - Opening Ceremony that was received with larly with choreographers Russell Maliphant and unanimous acclaim. Akram Khan, and established a reputation as a As a choreographer, Khan has developed a “choreographer of light.” His collaborations with close collaboration with English National Ballet Russell Maliphant have won international criti - and its artistic director, Tamara Rojo. He created cal acclaim and many awards. Hulls has worked the short piece Dust , part of the Lest We Forget with Akram Khan over many years on produc - program, which led to an invitation to create his tions including In-I , DESH , TOROBAKA , and own critically acclaimed version of the iconic ro - Until the Lions . In 2009 he became an associate mantic ballet Giselle . artist of Sadler’s Wells. In 2010 Hulls’ contribu - Khan has been the recipient of numerous tion to dance was recognized with his entry awards throughout his career including the into the Oxford Dictionary of Dance, as only the Laurence Olivier Award, the Bessie Award (New fourth lighting designer to be included. In 2014 York Dance and Performance Award), the pres - Hulls received the Olivier Award for Out - tigious ISPA (International Society for the Per - standing Achievement in Dance. forming Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele Astaire Award, the Herald Arch - Vincenzo Lamagna (composer) is a musician, angel Award at the Edinburgh International composer, and producer based in London. His Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award, and six music is known for its visceral, emotive, and Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Khan edgy language, which utilizes an unconventional was awarded an MBE for services to dance in hybrid of electro-orchestral sounds. Lamagna 2005. He is also an honorary graduate of the has carved a niche in the alternative contempo - University of London as well as Roehampton rary dance world, where he has established him - and De Montfort Universities, and an honorary self as a major collaborator with two of the most fellow of Trinity Laban. acclaimed choreographers of this generation, Akram Khan is an associate artist of Sadler’s Hofesh Shechter and Akram Khan. His most Wells, London and Curve, Leicester. recent collaborations include Until the Lions and Akram Khan’s award-winning 21st-century Ruth Little (dramaturg ) is a dance and theater adaptation of Giselle for English National Ballet. dramaturg, teacher, and writer. Her work has Lamagna’s scores are a mercurial combination encompassed national arts organizations, re - of acoustic and electronic music, recognized for mote rural communities, site-specific produc - their ferocious industrial undertones, haunted tions, and large- and small-scale exhibitions and melodies, and cinematic soundscapes. expeditions. She lectured in English literature at the University of Sydney, and was the literary Mirella Weingarten (set designer ), aer com - manager at Out of Joint, Soho eatre, the pleting her studies in dramatic arts in London, Young Vic, and the Royal Court. Little was studied fine arts in Hamburg and Edinburgh, the associate director at Cape Farewell from with teachers including Marina Abramovic. 2010 –16. She is dramaturg with Akram Khan Since 1996 she has worked as a professional Company ( Gnosis , Vertical Road , DESH , iTMOi , theatre designer and as a director for opera and Dust , technê , Until the Lions , Giselle ) and has dance theater. Weingarten’s recent work has worked with the Banff Arts Centre, Sadler’s been seen throughout Europe and includes Wells, the Barbican, and many others. Winner an extensive collaboration with the Berlin Con - of the 2012 Kenneth Tynan Award for drama - tempo rary Opera, designing many of their turgy, Little has a number of publications, in - award-winning productions. Working with ki - cluding Art, Place, Climate: Situated Ethics , War netic sculpture and moving objects on stage in the Body , and e Meteorological Body . has characterized her work throughout the past

Opposite: Photo by Jean-Louis Fernandez 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS years. Since 2011, Weingarten has been the artist, he has worked with Wayne McGregor, artistic director of the arts and music festival Akram Khan, Shobana Jeyasingh, and many Schlossmediale Werdenberg in Switzerland, an others. Khoo founded mavinkhoo Dance in arts festival for contemporary and early music 2003. He was artistic director of ŻfinMalta and audio-visual art. Dance Ensemble between 2014 –17, and he cur - rently maintains his touring work as a mature Kimie Nakano (costume designer ) has designed artist with a focus on solo Bharatanatyam per - costumes for Northern Ballet, Lithuanian formances and specifically commissioned con - National Opera and Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, temporary duet works. Khoo also worked as Companhia National de Bailado, English rehearsal director for the Akram Khan Com - National Ballet, Van Huynh Company, the Royal pany production of iTMOi and worked along - Ballet of Flanders, Rambert Dance Company, side Khan on Giselle (English National Ballet). David Nixon, Didy Veldman, Sidi Larbi Cherka - oui, José Agudo, and Yabin Studio. Her opera Nicola Monaco ( rehearsal director ) studied con - production credits include e Return of Ulysses temporary dance and ballet in Italy from the age by John Fulljames for Royal Opera and Tristan of 19, and had the opportunity to work with the und Isolde by Carmen Jakobi for Longborough award-winning Dutch dance company Emio Festival Opera. Nakano’s designs for Akram Greco/PC from 2003 until 2008. In 2009 he Khan Company include Vertical Road , Dust moved to London, where he has worked with (English National Ballet’s Lest We Forget ), iTMOi , choreographers such as Akram Khan, Gregory TOROBAKA , Gnosis , Kaash , e Rashomon Maquoma, Tom Dale, e Feather stonehaughs, Effect (National Youth Dance Company), and and Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company. In technê (choreographed for Sylvie Guillem, Life 2013 Monaco toured worldwide with Akram in Progress ). Khan Company, performing in iTMOi and Kaash . He collaborated as a rehearsal director Jordan Tannahill (writer ) has been “widely cel - with the mavinkhooDance and Żfin Malta ebrated as one of Canada’s most accomplished Dance Ensemble directed by Mavin Khoo young playwrights, filmmakers and all-round until 2016 and Paolo Mangiola in 2017. Mona - multidisciplinary artists” ( Toronto Star ). His co also teaches workshops internationally and plays have been produced on major stages in - in 2017 received the qualification to teach the ternationally and translated into eight languages, Double Skin/Double Mind methodology of while his films and multimedia performances ICK/Amsterdam. have been presented at festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Tribeca Nina Harries (double bass and vocals ) studied Film Festival, and the Venice Biennial. In 2017 classical double bass at the Royal College of his play Late Company transferred to London’s Music under Enno Sen of the London Sin - West End. Current projects include his virtual fonietta, graduating in 2016 and specializing reality performance Draw Me Close , produced in contemporary classical music. Alongside by the National eatre (UK) and the National performing with orchestras, punk bands, folk Film Board of Canada, which opened at the ensembles, and contemporary experimental Young Vic in January 2019. ensembles, she is also a soloist and songwriter. Harries is celebrated for her rare skill at singing Mavin Khoo (rehearsal director ) is internation - and playing simultaneously and has commis - ally recognized as a dance artist, teacher, chore - sioned several works for bass and voice while at ographer, and artist scholar. His initial training the RCM. Her own composition work incorpo - was in Malaysia. He then pursued his training rates theater, cabaret, and comedy, captivating in Bharatanatyam intensively under the leg - audiences with original songs and poetry endary dance maestro Padma Shri Adyar K. exploring the relationship between the bass and Laksh man in India. As a contemporary dance the female voice.

Opposite: Photo by Jean-Louis Fernandez 5 THE ARTISTS AND CREW

Akram Khan Ruth Little Michael Hulls Vincenzo Lamagna Mirella Weingarten

Kimie Nakano Jordan Tannahill Mavin Khoo Nicola Monaco Nina Harries

BC Manjunath Tamar Osborn Aditya Prakash Clarice Rarity Farooq Chaudhry

Richard Fagan John Valente Marek Pomocki Stéphane Déjours Julien Deloison

Russell Parker Mashitah Omar

6 PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

BC Manjunath (percussions and konnakol ) re - under venerated gurus in Chennai, his style is vealed an innate musical talent as a young boy heavily inspired by North Indian classical music, and he imbibed the best in Carnatic Talavadya Sufi music, jazz, and hip hop, which he brings from his parents. Manjunath has acquired out in the Aditya Prakash Ensemble, his collab - awards and honors throughout his career in - orative group that creates original compositions cluding the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar, inspired from these styles. the highest recognition for youth in the field of fine arts. He has since expanded his vocabulary Clarice Rarity (violin ) studied at the Guildhall and is well-versed in the Indian classical, School of Music & Drama and the Royal College modern jazz, and contemporary classical music of Music. She realized that challenging per - that he mastered by collaborating with world- formance conventions inspired her the most and renowned artists of these genres at prestigious in the early stages of her career focused on per - platforms in India and overseas. Man junath forming the works of contemporary classical toured with the Akram Khan Company’s pro - composers such as John Cage, Pierre Boulez, ductions ma , Gnosis, and TOROBAKA . Michael Finissey, Hans Abrahamsen, and Mas - ter of the Queen’s Music Judith Weir. Rarity’s Tamar Osborn (baritone saxophone ), a saxo - interest in this repertoire led her to work with phonist and multi-wind player, graduated from some of the most exciting young composers in the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2000. the UK, including Oliver Leith and Lisa Illean. A strong classical background complemented by Her performance highlights include collaborat - jazz studies has enabled her to perform in many ing with the Birmingham Contemporary Music different genres throughout her professional Group at Wigmore Hall and at the Birmingham career. She currently works regularly with the Festival Hall and working at the Viitasaari new- Dele Sosimi Afrobeat Orchestra and jazz artists music festival with Ensemble Modern/IEMA in Sarathy Korwar, the Hackney Colliery Band, 2017, as part of a conducting master class week Emanative, and Jessica Lauren. Past projects with Susanna Maliki. span the worlds of pop, theater, and world music, including Kelis, Van Morrison, Tanmoy Akram Khan Company Bose, Fela! at the National eatre and Sadler’s In July 1999 in the foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Wells, and Africa Express (a series of collabora - Hall in London, an animated and curiosity-filled tive concerts between African and western mu - conversation took place between the young and sicians including Tony Allen and Fatoumata gied dancer/choreographer Akram Khan and Diawara). Osborn runs her own project Collo - an ambitious former dancer and recently grad - cu tor as bandleader, composer, and performer. uated arts manager Farooq Chaudhry. at Collocutor has three releases: Instead (2014), conversation laid the foundation stone for a dy - e Search (2017), and Black Satin (2018). namic collaboration, culminating in the creation of Akram Khan Company one year later. Aditya Prakash (vocals ) is an award-winning Inspired by Khan’s early training in the Indian Indian classical vocalist and composer, best classical kathak dance form, and the hybrid lan - known for his powerful and emotive voice. He guage that organically emerged when Khan’s has been performing classical Carnatic vocal kathak training encountered contemporary concerts since the age of 13 and had the rare dance in his teens, a vision began to form, fortune of performing, touring, and working fuelled by a desire to learn and create through with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, from collaboration with the very best people across the age of 16. Prakash studied composition and all the disciplines in the arts. performance under several award-winning mu - e rules were simple: take risks, think big sicians during his ethnomusicology studies at and daring, explore the unfamiliar, avoid com - UCLA. Although firmly rooted in South Indian promise, and tell stories through dance that are classical (Carnatic) music, which he studied compelling and relevant, with artistic integrity.

7 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Aer just over 18 years Akram Khan Com- Akram Khan Company pany is now undisputedly one of the foremost Akram Khan, artistic director innovative dance companies in the world. e Farooq Chaudhry, producer programs range from kathak and modern solos Jan Hart, finance director to artist-to-artist collaborations and ensemble Tina Fagan, technical manager productions. e company has a major inter - Clare Cody-Richardson, head of operations national presence and enjoys busy tours that Mashitah Omar, head of touring and production reach out to many cultures and peoples across Céline Gaubert, head of external relations the globe. Khan has received numerous inter - Christine Maupetit, head of legacy projects national dance awards, the most notable being Mai Tassinari, touring assistant an Olivier Award for his solo production DESH Hannah Patel, legacy and communications in 2012. assistant A milestone in the company’s history was the Nathan White, administrator creation of a section of the London Olympic Amy Sharkey, executive assistant to Games Opening Ceremony in 2012. Akram Khan Akram Khan Company enjoys artistic asso - ciation with Sadler’s Wells eatre in London, Board of Directors Curve in Leicester, and other leading venues and Gurnek Bains ( chair ), Anaïs Aguerre, Michael festivals around the world. Cohen, Paul de Quincey, Ian Finlay, Dipali Company productions: XENOS (2018) , Un - Sahni, Denis Shafranik, Jeremy Sharkeley, Rick til the Lions (2016), Chotto Desh (2015), Kaash Wentworth (revival, 2014), TOROBAKA (2014), iTMOi (2013), DESH (2011), Vertical Road (2010), Website: akramkhancompany.net Gnosis (2009), In-I (2008), bahok (2008), Sacred Facebook: Monsters (2006), zero degrees (2005), Variations facebook.com/AkramKhanCompany for Vibes, Strings & Pianos (2006), ird Cata - Twitter: twitter.com/akramkhanlive logue (2005), ma (2004), Ronin (2003), Kaash Instagram: instagram.com/akramkhancompany (2002), Polaroid Feet (2001), Related Rocks (2001), Rush (2000), Fix (2000), and Loose in Exclusive North American Representation Flight (2000). 2Luck Concepts John Luckacovic & Eleanor Oldham

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