Akram was born in London in 1974. His mother introduced him to Bengali folk dance and when he was seven she took him and his sister to the celebrated Kathak teacher, Sri Pratap Pawar. Akram toured in his first professional acting role at the age of ten in a production supported by the British Arts Council, The Adventures of Mowgli. In 1988, as a teenager, he traveled the world in Sir Peter Brooks' play for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Mahabharata. In 1994 he went to De Montfort University in Leicester, where he was first exposed to ballet and contemporary styles. After two years he transferred to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, graduating with the highest marks in performance ever awarded. He launched his career as a solo artist in 1995 with the piece, later winning a Jerwood Choreography Award. He has collaborated with the star French ballerina Sylvie Guillem, and his work with Academy Award-winning actress Juliette Binoche showed his talents to a broader audience.
INTERVIEW
How did the idea come about that you should work with Chinese ballet dancers?
Initially, they were the ones who picked me and not the other way round. They invited me to the Chinese National Ballet to create a choreography. I would not have been especially interested to simply teach them one of my pieces, so I decided to create something altogether new with them. That sounded really exciting: the meeting of various cultures on stage. It is also interesting to see how the classical ballet technique can create a different effect on their bodies than for instance on a French dancer's.
To what extent does classic ballet appear as a determining element in your work?
Of course, it has an important role and especially more recently, I am increasingly interested in it. Back at the time, I was a lousy ballet dancer because I started too late and I was more into modern dance at school. Yet, I truthfully admire and respect this precision technique, and when I can create something with people like those I recently had the chance to work with, it is really inspiring. What I basically know best is Indian dance and everything else builds on top of that.
How did the Chinese dancers react to your style and approach?
To my great surprise, they were very open. Of course, I am not surprised about openness in the case of independent dancers, or even in the case of someone like Sylvie Guillem, who had come a long way already. But indeed, I had not expected it from dancers living in China. They seemed to enjoy the fact that I gave them space, that their personality was allowed to appear on stage and that I relied very much on each of them. We discussed this a great deal, actually, I had them speak quite a lot. Because this performance is built on the question: what does "home" mean to different people? It was also beautiful to see the process of performers of mixed ethnicity developing into a unified group.
What would be your message to Hungarian audiences before the performance?
That I am very jealous of the troupe because I personally cannot join them on this tour. I have always wanted to visit Budapest. Friends have shown me recordings of Hungarian folk dances and I completely fell in love with them: they create a beautiful world, rhythm and power.
So perhaps your next coproduction could be made with Hungarian dancers?
