Sacred Monsters
Akram Khan Company with Sylvie Guillem, Adelaide Festival Theatre March 9 and 11; Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House March 17-19; Brisbane Powerhouse March 22 and 23
There are a lucky few who recall the experience of Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn at the Adelaide Festival and, some 30 years on, there is another extraordinary partnership which has a poignant link with those two luminaries.
At the age of 19 Sylvie Guillem was acclaimed by then artistic director Nureyev on the stage of the Paris Opera, now aged 43 and the most celebrated ballerina of her generation, she has dazzled Adelaide much as he did 40 years ago with a partner who also has a link with the festival city.
As a young teenager Akram Khan appeared in Peter Brook's fabled Mahabharata and is now one of the most innovative and highly-regarded dancer-choreographers of his generation. The pairing of Khan and Guillem is one of the most exciting and unexpected events and even though they have been performing and touring the work sporadically for something like 18 months, they achieve a level of spontaneity, pleasure and verve that is a joy to watch.
In retrospect, the partnership is one not only made in heaven, but also as obvious as night following day. Akram Khan, a Bengali Englishman, is steeped in and expert at the traditions of classic Kathak dance. London-born and raised, he is also a choreographer whose imagination has embraced western contemporary dance and technology. For her part, French-born, one-time Olympic level acrobat Sylvie Guillem is the prima ballerina assoluta who combined mastery of her craft with a fierce desire not to be held hostage to the pointe shoe.
The result of putting the two together is magical: they're funny, witty, moving, beautiful, thoughtful and inspiring. They break every rule of their respective disciplines except the one that goes: Thou Shalt Aspire to Greatness No Matter What; they play with expectations and give less than two hoots for convention. Separately, each is a force of nature, together they become a sublime single being. It's difficult to imagine such uncommon brilliance appearing again for another generation.
