World premiere at International Dance Festival Birmingham
Murmur & Inked is a new double bill from Aakash Odedra Company. Artistic Director Odedra is one of the most sought after British choreographer/dancers today.
Originally trained in the South Asian styles of Kathak and Bharat Natyam, Aakash Odedra has developed a distinctive movement style following intensive training with some of the most prestigious choreographers in the world.
Diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, Aakash found conventional education at school very challenging. He felt defined by his learning difficulties, but not his abilities. As written language was so alien, dance became his preferred mode of expression. In Murmur, Aakash and Australian choreographer Lewis Major delve into the idea of warped and exaggerated realities. In a major collaboration with Major and Ars Electronica Futurelab (Linz, Austria), the company explores how the misconceptions of dyslexia can be revealed through visual design, light, sound, movement.
Scarification and tattoos have been used since old times as marks of identity or experience. Aakash Odedra’s grandmother’s body was covered by signs that ensured her protection and sense of belonging. In Inked, choreographed by Laurence Olivier awards winner Damien Jalet , the body becomes a place of transformation, an envelope marked, folded and metamorphosed by it s journey through a ritualised space. The figures and drawings made on his own body reveal the inner duality of the dancer who enters through a series of transformative stages in a self-seeking quest, an exploration of the body’s limits and powers, as a way to transcend them .
Supported by Sky Arts Academy Arts Scholarships and Arts Council England
Co-commissioned by Arts at Dartington, (Dartington Hall Trust, UK), Curve Theatre (Leicester, UK), DanceXchange (Birmingham, UK), La Maison de la musique de Nanterre (Nanterre, FR), Maison des Arts de Créteil (Créteil, FR), Pavilion Dance South West (Bournemouth, UK), Sampad (Birmingham, UK), Studio Programme, The Royal Ballet (London , UK )
Age Guidance: 11yrs+
Photo by Sean Goldthorpe