"I don't want to feel imprisoned, don't want to be the father of 15 dancers — I want to be water rather than stone," he said.
"More and more I don't like to be pushed; if I want to do it … I want to.
When I hit 30 — not too long ago — the body is saying something, either you give up or you go deeper," he said.
One thing he wanted to do was work with Cloud Gate. Cloud Gate founder and artistic director Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) first invited him in 2002, after he had seen Khan's Kaash. It's just taken him five years to get here, because of scheduling demands. He said seeing the company perform Cursive III in Berlin really inspired him.
"I've been invited by several different European companies [to choreograph for them] but I declined. There was a profound connection with my own philosophy behind the company. Cloud Gate has a strongly rooted tradition, it is constantly changing [that tradition] and coming back to it," he said.
He began his work with the company by giving the 12 dancers (all women, no surprise there) two key words — death and crash — and asked them how they related to those words.
"I'm looking for universal stories, personal and universal … I'm interested in twisting a character to see the other side," Khan said.
Akram Khan will be talking more about his work next Saturday afternoon, at a forum with Lin, sponsored by Cloud Gate and the British Council, at the Gis Convention Center at National Taiwan University. The forum is open to the public, and advanced reservations can be made by registering online (www.cloudgate.org.tw/event/2007/forum) or by calling the company at (02) 2712-2102.
Taipei audiences will also have the chance to see Khan the dancer this fall, when he performs with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, as part of the Novel Hall Dance Series, from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23.
In the meantime, there's just three and a half weeks left to wait to see what Khan and the Cloud Gate dancers have been up to.
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