On what would have been the première of Creature by Akram Khan, composer Vincenzo Lamagna, Akram Khan Company and English National Ballet have shared a track from the score along with an art-film by Maxime Dos.
The track, “Closer and Closer”, has been released alongside Dos's film featuring studio rehearsals for the production with ENB Lead Principal Jeffrey Cirio and fellow dancers.
Lamagna said, “when I landed upon a hymn by St. Thomas Aquinas, it was clear that I found the right words to express both the emotional journey of our ‘Creature’ and my feelings around the present global crisis. I truly believe that this surreal experience, if accepted with an open heart, could reveal a treasure for our humanity; a chance to shed our old skin and embrace a new way of living.”
Creature is inspired by Georg Büchner’s expressionist classic Woyzeck with shadows of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the tale of an outsider and the search for belonging.
“Closer and Closer” is available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud and Dos's film featuring the track can be seen on YouTube.
Creature was due to première on 1 April 2020 but it has been postponed to 11–15 November 2020 at Sadler’s Wells London.