To say that the translator summarised Israel Galván’s words would itself be a summary, and those who had no understanding of Spanish would have struggled to get a sense of the the man’s words. Luckily, Akram Khan took up some of the themes that the translator missed for those who stayed behind for last night’s post show speech.
Not that any of that mattered. This long-awaited and much anticipated performance by two contrasting great dancers of the day delivered everything that could be hoped for, by those in flamenco and kathak communities as well as those who just follow Khan.
Music, percussion, voices and dance melded into an integrated symphony. This performance, which demonstrated the visceral potential available to those who strive to deconstruct and then reconstruct their performance. Each performer’s essence melded; the mathematical preciseness of Akram Khan’s kathak, the deconstructed passion of Israel Galván’s flamenco worked of music, in seamless coordination with music, singing and palmas to produce a treat for the eyes, ears, mind and spirit in a way not seen before.
So what that they didn’t deliver the new language as promised? In Khan’s words “we were working hard to create a third way [of dance, combining kathak and flamenco] but then realised we didn’t have to search for something else. We had the relevation that we are so different that we had to develop what we were.”
It worked.