Merseyside Dance Initiative presents LEAP 08
With the best of local, national and international contemporary dance
LEAP 08, Merseyside Dance Initiative’s annual dance festival brings the very best of local, national and international contemporary dance to Liverpool. Now in its 16th year, LEAP 08 launches Saturday 1 March 2008 under the theme, ‘Cultures Collide’. The programme features dance from local companies and internationally renowned artists including Akram Khan, Shobana Jeyasingh and the all female, Brooklyn-based break dancing group Decadancetheatre.
Leap your way through the city between Saturday 1 to 15 March and explore the depth and diversity of the Cultural Capital. LEAP 08 is delighted to present the European Premiere of Bahok by Akram Khan Company at the Playhouse 7 and 8 March. Co-produced by Merseyside Dance Initiative and the Liverpool Culture Company for the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008, Bahok is the long awaited new group choreography by Akram Khan.
Akram Khan dubbed “the greatest new hope in the dance world” by the Observer -- joins forces with Mercury Award winning composer and producer Nitin Sawhney, and has brought together a new company of nine dancers. A collaboration with China’s classical ballet flagship company, The National Ballet of China, the dancers come from different cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds: Chinese, Korean, Indian, South-African and Spanish.
“[Akram Khan] has been hailed by critics as one of the most exciting fusion choreographers in the world.” The Asian Wall Street Journal, 11 June 2004
Cultures Collide in LEAP 08. Appearing at the Everyman/Playhouse Thursday 13 and 14 March is Decadancetheatre, Jennifer Weber’s Brooklyn-based all female troupe who aim to bridge the gap in hip hop culture between male and female, street and stage. The company consists of dancers from the U.S, Colombia and Japan, with some coming straight from battling on the streets and others from ballet in the studio. B-girl ballerinas Decadancetheatre are out to take hip-hop-the-style, the attitude, the energy and the female dancers out of the background of music videos and into the forefront of theatrical performance.
Why not get the whole family up and dancing with our Family Dance Day. A chance to stretch your legs and flex your feet with a variety of workshops and performances from I Move, I Imagine, I Create Dance Company, Dance In-Tension and All Play.
THE DANCER'S CUT
SJDC celebrate their 20th anniversary with highlights of their favourite pieces
A creative force that has shaped much of UK dance today, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company are celebrating their 20th Anniversary in 2008 with a performance that offers a privileged insight into some of their most exciting, intricate and culturally ambiguous work from the last twenty years.
This is a birthday celebration, the bite-sized bits of Shobana Jeyasingh's hallmark choreography. Featuring fierce solos, intricate duets and athletic trios The Dancer's Cut tells the human story of the people who bring her choreography to life, a story pounded out like the rhythm of monsoon rain.
This is power and grace up-close and intimate. Audience members will be invited to zoom in and revel in the detail, sweaty and sensual, as bodies and cultures collide.
Thus is dance on the inside. Film combined with live performance show us the dancer's take on the work.
The Dancer's Cut will feature highlights from four of SJDCs favourite pieces and will be performed up close by four of their most talented company performers: Yamuna Devi, Kamala Devam, Mandeep Raikhy and Devaraj Thimmaiah.
The dancers will be bringing their own history and experience of working with the company to the performances and this will be a chance to capture a rare glimpse into the personal and behind the scenes aspects of dance.
The show features specially created lighting designs by Michael Mannion, film-making by Manu Luksch and costumes by Ursula Bombshell.
To see online trailers of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company's previous work please visit www.seeitfirst.co.uk/shobana.html
WORLD CLASS CHOREOGRAPHER UNITES DANCE COMPANIES ACROSS THE GLOBE
Akram Khan and National Ballet of China’s major collaboration
February 2008: Akram Khan, the award-winning dancer and choreographer, and the prestigious National Ballet of China’s major new international collaboration, bahok, premiered with great success in Beijing on 25 January 2008 at Beijing’s leading theatre Tianqiao. After the UK premiere at Liverpool Playhouse on 7 March 2008 as part of
Liverpool’s Year as European Capital of Culture, bahok embarks on a global tour with performances in several other cities in the UK, Syria, Colombia, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, New York, Canada, Portugal, France, Abu Dhabi, Croatia, The Netherlands, Scandinavia and Mexico. This is a unique collaboration for both Akram Khan Company and
China’s classical ballet flagship company. Khan has drawn together the two companies’ differing cultural perspectives and diverse dance styles making bahok one of the most exciting cultural events of 2008 anywhere in the world.
The collaboration with the National Ballet of China represents a continuation of Khan’s interest in combining different dance traditions to create new and original dance vocabulary. bahok, a Bengali word meaning ‘carrier’, includes three dancers from the National Ballet of China and five dancers from Akram Khan Company. Together they come from many different cultures, dance backgrounds and traditions: Chinese, Korean, Indian, South African, Slovakian and Spanish. bahok was directed and choreographed by Khan and this is the first time he will not be appearing in one of his own productions.
bahok combines the dynamics of modern China, elements of Chinese folk dancing and Kathak, as well as western/modern and classical dance influences. Khan’s long time collaborator multi-award winning composer Nitin Sawhney has created the music especially for bahok.
