by ROSLYN SULCAS
Desh Akram Khan in this, his first full-length solo work, which explores social identity and the quest for self, at Sadler’s Wells in London PHOTO/Richard Haughton
LONDON — The ever-present tensions between history and identity, the collective past and the personal present; the paradoxical state of being that is the condition of the second-generation immigrant. These ideas are at the heart of Akram Khan’s finest choreography. And “Desh,” his first full-length solo work, which opened here at Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday, is undoubtedly among the best pieces that Mr. Khan has created.
It’s a meditation on social identity, a journey to the mythical land of one’s ancestors, an evocation of childhood as a place of stories and mystery, and a quest for the self. All of it is permeated by Mr. Khan’s fascinating movement style; a boneless, seamless concatenation of interlocking whiplashing curves, his legs sometimes stamping out rhythms drawn from kathak, one of the oldest forms of Indian classical dance.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)