Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The legendary Akram Khan’s turbulent XENOS is a stunning farewell to solo performance

• By drediman
• October 31, 2018
• No Comments

Akram Khan in “Xenos” at the Rose Theater, presented as part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival.

Tonight, I caught the first of two performances of Xenos (Greek for “outsider” or “foreigner”), allegedly the legendary 43-year-old Indian-British dancer/choreographer Akram Khan’s final appearance in a solo performance. As if to pay their respects to this important artist, the packed audience at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center sat enraptured throughout the hourlong show, an offering at this fall’s White Light Festival. The production acts as a memorial of sorts to the Indian soldiers who fought for the British during the first World War – more than a million of whom perished in combat. The piece loosely tells the story of one such soldier on his wedding day; amidst the festivities and seemingly against his will, he’s violently whisked back to the horrors of the trenches, as are we.

The stage pictures that Mr. Khan conjures are haunting. Technically, the show is a marvel – choreography, music, sets, lighting, props, and costumes all come together to create theatrical poetry, albeit one that’s drenched in turbulence and an almost unbearable level of anxiety (after all, this is a show that uses PTSD as a launching point). It’s also a world in limbo in which nothing is grounded. The significance and roles of certain objects – kathak bells, ropes, rocks, a gramophone, etc. – morph over the course of the evening, as if to suggest a timeless topsy-turvy world in which little makes sense (perhaps an allegory of sorts?).

If this is indeed Mr. Khan’s final solo performance, he is going out on an undeniable high. No one moves quite like him; Mr. Khan (still) dazzlingly injects each moment in his performance with presence, depth of feeling, and an innate sense of storytelling through pure movement. He’s accompanied by five exquisite musicians – BC Manjunath, Aditya Prakash, Clarice Rarity, Tamar Osborn, and Nina Harries – who provide the piece with a pungent sonic backdrop that perfectly compliments the stunning visual world of Mr. Khan’s fertile imagination.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

XENOS
Dance/Theater
Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
1 hour, 10 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 1