Aakash Odedra's solo show Rising that launched the performer and choreographer onto the dance scene, with choreography by Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Odedra, will open at Curve Leicester 25–25 May before touring to Oxford (1 July) and Poole (7 July).
Each choreographer uses Odedra’s background in Kathak and Bharatanatyam in a contemporary programme which won Odedra his second Bessie nomination for Outstanding Performer and a Dora Award (Canada) for Best Male Performance.
Khan’s starting point for In The Shadow of Man was the way the Kathak masters used animals as inspiration; he imagined an animal spirit residing deep within the dancer’s body. The score is by composer Jocelyn Pook. In Cut, Maliphant works alongside his long-term creative collaborators, lighting designer Michael Hulls and composer Andy Cowton.
Cherkaoui’s Constellation brings patterns of sound and light together to create a system where things are kept both suspended and perpetually moving with Odedra at the centre as an astral body who generates his own rhythms and luminosity. Odedra’s own Nritta focuses on the essence and pure energy of Kathak, exploring rhythm and mathematics.