This week I was lucky enough to see the opening night performance of Akram Khan’s bahok at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and take a master class with two of the company dancers. Jenni sent me the video below and told me I’d love it, which got me excited so we went to the show together after class on Thursday. It was AMAZING. The master class was taught by Shanell Winlock and Eulalia Ayguade Farro at LINES Dance Center yesterday (Saturday). It was definitely intense, but also wonderfully enjoyable. More after the break.
Description of the show from the YBCA page:
Named after a Bengali word meaning ‘carrier,’ bahok explores the ways in which the body carries national identity and a sense of belonging. Eight dancers from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds—Chinese, Korean, Indian, Slovakian, South African and Spanish—act out their attempts to communicate through dramatic dance and spoken vocabulary as they wait out their airport limbo, their destination unknown. Khan joins forces with long-time musical collaborator Nitin Sawhney, renowned for his multi award-winning compositions, who has created an original score for bahok. Originally a collaboration between the Akram Khan Company and the National Ballet of China, bahok is dance and storytelling inspired by the exploration of cultural identity in a globalised world. (Running Time: 70 min, no intermission)
