akram khan
Choreographer, Dancer, Visionary
INTERVIEW
What is your greatest extravagance?
AK: One of my extravagances would probably be to watch the ‘process’ of anyone who is good at what they do… whether they are cooking, building a car, making a film… I love watching, listening, and experiencing the creative processes of others, but my most loved extravagance is to watch David Attenborough’s docs, where he explains in the most direct and simple way, the process of nature and animals that inhabit the earth. I can often lose myself for hours at a time…
When and where were you happiest?
AK: In my studio. Well, it used to be the stage, but now I feel more at home and comfortable in my studio (tucked away at the back of my wife’s garden).
What is your most treasured possession?
AK: My most treasured possession is a memory of my mother whispering into my ears, ‘people will always fear what they do not understand, that’s why they fear you, but have faith and belief in yourself and your ideas, and eventually, you will be able to make people understand, and more importantly, to make them see that there is nothing to fear…’
(I always felt misunderstood at school, so my mother would whisper this every morning, like a mantra, before I left for school.)
Who is your fiction hero?
AK: I don’t have one… yet…
What is your motto?
AK: I have two… 1) we must carry the principle that if only some of us are well, then none of us are;
and 2) if you are doing it for a result in the future, then you are not doing it.
