I couldn't miss Akram Khan Company's 'Until The Lions' at Esplanade's da:ns festival. The synopsis told us that the dance takes its name from Ugbo proverb, "Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." The performance is based on poet Karthika Naïr’s book 'Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata'.
The book re-worked the original epic and tells the tale of Princess Amba, eldest daughter of the King of Kashi, who was about to choose her husband in a public swayamvara ceremony. Warrior Bheeshma, son of the Kuru King won all battles and intended for Princess Amba to be his half-brother's (Crown Prince of Kuru) bride. What follows, you can totally google, but basically it's a tale of mercy, spurned love, revenge and anger. Princess Amba, filled with the desire for revenge, is reincarnated into the male warrior Shikhandi, but who has the memories of the woman he was in his past life, and is still tied to the burning vow of revenge against Bheeshma. And when warrior Bheeshma met Shikhandi on the battlefield, he recognized him as Amba.
I loved the story, and the dance, and the brilliant performance! Choreographer Akram Khan picks the characters to suspend them in time, lending them new voices and emotions that the book and its words and re-telling don't flash out. The dance took its roots from the choreographer's background in kathak and contemporary movements. But it's also theater. The three dancers (Rianto/Indonesia, Ching-Ying Chien/Taiwan and Joy Alpuerto Ritter/Philippines) were violent, fierce and war-like. They danced on a cross-section of a giant tree trunk, and that was nicely done. No clichés. The set is designed by Tim Yip/Hong Kong (who won an Oscar for Best Art Direction for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000).
The book re-worked the original epic and tells the tale of Princess Amba, eldest daughter of the King of Kashi, who was about to choose her husband in a public swayamvara ceremony. Warrior Bheeshma, son of the Kuru King won all battles and intended for Princess Amba to be his half-brother's (Crown Prince of Kuru) bride. What follows, you can totally google, but basically it's a tale of mercy, spurned love, revenge and anger. Princess Amba, filled with the desire for revenge, is reincarnated into the male warrior Shikhandi, but who has the memories of the woman he was in his past life, and is still tied to the burning vow of revenge against Bheeshma. And when warrior Bheeshma met Shikhandi on the battlefield, he recognized him as Amba.
I loved the story, and the dance, and the brilliant performance! Choreographer Akram Khan picks the characters to suspend them in time, lending them new voices and emotions that the book and its words and re-telling don't flash out. The dance took its roots from the choreographer's background in kathak and contemporary movements. But it's also theater. The three dancers (Rianto/Indonesia, Ching-Ying Chien/Taiwan and Joy Alpuerto Ritter/Philippines) were violent, fierce and war-like. They danced on a cross-section of a giant tree trunk, and that was nicely done. No clichés. The set is designed by Tim Yip/Hong Kong (who won an Oscar for Best Art Direction for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000).
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