Nritta

Choreography and Music arrangements: Aakash Odedra

A classical Kathak variation focusing on virtuosity and timing. Nritta corresponds to pure dance steps performed rhythmically. Here the movements of the body do not convey any mood or meaning and its purpose is just creating beauty by making various patterns, lines in space and time.

In The Shadow Of Man

Choreography: Akram Khan
Lighting: Michael Hulls
Music: Jocelyn Pook
Rehearsal Directors: Lewis Major and José Agudo

“The direction for this solo choreography, is not so much about making a piece, as it is about exploring my continuous fascination with the ‘animal’ we have within ourselves. I have always felt a strong connection to the ‘animal’ embedded within the Indian dance tradition. Kathak masters have so often used animals as forms of inspiration, even to the point of creating a whole repertoire based on the qualities, movements, and rhythms of certain animals. So, in this journey with Aakash, I was fascinated to discover if there was an animal residing deep within the shadow of his own body.”
Akram Khan

CUT

Choreography: Russell Maliphant
Lighting: Michael Hulls
Music: Andy Cowton
Rehearsal Director: Lewis Major

“For CUT I wanted to create a piece using elements and dynamics that Aakash is familiar with from his background in Kathak and Bharat Natyam. I wanted to shape that into a world where the lighting cuts and highlights that movement and creates a contained world that expresses its own logic of flow and form.”
Russell Maliphant

Constellation

Choreography: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Lighting: Willy Cessa
Music: Olga Wojcieowska
Rehearsal Directors: Paul Zivkovich and Lewis Major

Lightning and thunder. Light and sound. The illusions of distance and nearness they convey in a sky that deceptively appears a constant. Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui has been fascinated by the different images these convey, while their source is often one and the same. He seeks to highlight different patterns of sound and different sources of light that come together to create a constellation, a system where things are kept suspended and in movement by each others’ gravitational fields and contending forces.

Aakash Odedra is widely known as an accomplished Kathak dancer and a rising young star of British dance. He has trained with acclaimed dancers Chitraleka Bolar and Nilima Devi in the UK and Asha Joglekar and Chhaya Kanvateh in India.

This project is commissioned by AKCT, Eastman, Russell Maliphant Company, DanceXchange, Sampad, The Hat Factory, Leicester, Leicestershire and Ruthland Dance, South East Dance, New Art Exchange, The Place, Curve Theatre Leicester and supported by the English Art Council and Akademi. Aаkash Odedra Company is represented by Sarah Ford / Quaternaire.

www.aakashodedra.com