Jungle Book reimagined

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists today. In the last 20 years, he has created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in the UK and abroad. His reputation has been built on the success of imaginative, highly accessible and relevant productions such as Outwitting the Devil, XENOS, Until the Lions, Kaash, iTMOi (in the mind of igor), DESH, Vertical Road, Gnosis and zero degrees.

As an instinctive and natural collaborator, Khan’s choreography is the embodiment of shared exploration across multiple disciplines and cultures. His previous collaborators include the National Ballet of China, actress Juliette Binoche, ballerina Sylvie Guillem, choreographers/ dancers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Israel Galván, singer Kylie Minogue and indie rock band Florence and the Machine, visual artists Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormley and Tim Yip, writer Hanif Kureishi and composers Steve Reich, Nitin Sawhney, Jocelyn Pook and Ben Frost.

Khan’s work is recognised as being profoundly moving, in which his intelligently crafted storytelling is effortlessly intimate and epic. Described by the Financial Times as an artist “who speaks tremendously of tremendous things”, a highlight of his career was the creation of a section of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony that was received with unanimous acclaim.

Khan has been the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career including two Laurence Olivier Awards, the Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance Award), the prestigious ISPA (International Society for the Performing Arts) Distinguished Artist Award, the Fred and Adele Astaire Award, the Herald Archangel Award at the Edinburgh International Festival, the South Bank Sky Arts Award and nine Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards. Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005.

This year he was announced as the new Chancellor of De Montfort University, and he is also an Honorary Graduate of University of London as well as Roehampton and De Montfort University, and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban. Khan is an associate artist of Sadler’s Wells and Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, London as well as Curve.

Khoo is internationally recognised as a dance artist, teacher, choreographer and artist-scholar. His initial training was in Malaysia. He then pursued his training in Bharatanatyam intensively under the legendary dance maestro Padma Shri Adyar K. Lakshman in India. As a contemporary dance artist, he has worked with Wayne McGregor, Akram Khan, Shobana Jeyasingh and many others. Khoo founded mavinkhooDance in 2003. He was artistic director of ŻfinMalta National Dance Company between 2014 and 2017. He currently maintains his touring work as a mature artist with a focus on solo Bharatanatyam performances and specifically commissioned contemporary duet works. He also worked as rehearsal director for Akram Khan Company productions iTMOi, XENOS and Outwitting the Devil, and worked alongside Khan on Giselle (English National Ballet). In 2019, he was appointed Akram Khan Company associate creative.

Jordan is a writer, actor and practitioner of proud Russian-Jewish and Iraqi-Muslim heritage. He graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2007 and has worked extensively as an actor on stage and screen since. His debut play ALI AND DAHLIA, inspired by his experiences working in Palestine, was premiered at the Pleasance Theatre Islington in spring 2019 and directed by Kerry Michael MBE. The play received three OffWestEnd Award nominations, including Most Promising New Playwright, and was a finalist for Best Play Award in the 2020 Writers’ Guild Awards. Jordan is taking part in the Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE Writers Collective and developing his next play and a host of exciting new ideas for television.

Clark is a playwright, dramaturge, producer and creative director of the immersive, multidisciplinary theatre company Raucous. She has previously worked with the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Theatre 503, Arcola, New Diorama, Aardman Animations, Bath Theatre Royal, Sherman Cymru, Watford Palace Theatre and Bristol Old Vic (where she was literary producer). In 2017, she was awarded a Bruntwood Judge’s Prize for Playwriting and her plays have also been shortlisted for the Yale Drama Prize and the PapaTango Prize. In 2019, she was awarded the Digital Fellowship with the RSC and the spatial computing company, Magic Leap. She is a resident artist at Bristol’s Pervasive Media Studio, a senior lecturer in writing for performance at University of the West of England. She also writes for film.

Pook is an award-winning British composer and musician known for her unique and versatile voice in contemporary music. Her works span cultures and genres ranging from orchestral and choral to minimal, frequently inspired by found sound and field recordings, conjuring evocative soundscapes. She is also known for her highly acclaimed film scores such as The Wife, The Merchant of Venice, Brick Lane and Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. In 2018, she won the BAFTA for Best Original Score for the TV film of Mike Bartlett’s play King Charles III. Her previous collaborations with Akram Khan include scores for Dust (from English National Ballet’s Lest We Forget) and the much-celebrated score for DESH, for which she was awarded the British Composer Award in 2012.

Fry is a multi-award winning sound designer, best known for his cutting-edge works in theatre. Dance works include: The Language of Kindness (Wayward), Stones of Venice and Invisible Cities (MIF, 59 Productions & Rambert), Othello (Frantic Assembly) and John (DV8). Other productions include: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child; The Encounter (Complicité); Bedknobs & Broomsticks, and the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. He is the author of Sound Design for the Stage. Awards for best sound design include: three Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, two Helpmann Awards and an Evening Standard Award.

Over the last 20 years, Hulls has worked exclusively in dance, particularly with choreographers Russell Maliphant and Akram Khan, and established a reputation as a “choreographer of light”. His collaborations with Maliphant have won international critical acclaim and many awards. Hulls has worked with Khan over many years on productions including In-I, DESH, TOROBAKA, Until the Lions and XENOS.

In 2009, Hulls became an associate artist at Sadler’s Wells. In 2010, his contribution to dance was recognised with his entry into The Oxford Dictionary of Dance, as only the fourth lighting designer to be given an entry. In 2014, Hulls received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

Buether is an award-winning stage designer working internationally in theatre, opera and dance. Born in Berlin, she trained in costume design at Akademie für Kostüm Design in Hamburg, and in theatre design at Central Saint Martin’s, London. Her recent works include: To Kill a Mockingbird, Three Tall Women and A Doll’s House 2 on Broadway; The Jungle for the Young Vic, subsequently transferring to the West End and New York; and Caryl Churchill’s What If If Only for the Royal Court. Buether won the Linbury Prize for Stage Design in 1999 and received the Evening Standard Best Design Award in 2010 for Earthquakes in London and Sucker Punch, and again in 2018 for The Jungle.

Smith is an award-winning animation and art director who has been working in live performances of dance, theatre and music for over a decade. He graduated from Southampton Solent University in 2005 with a degree in Animation and moved straight into television and film before being introduced to create animation for live performances and video design by YeastCulture. Working with YeastCulture, his first piece was the animation for Akram Khan’s DESH. He has since gone on to create work for ballet, contemporary dance, opera, as well as classical and contemporary music with productions such as The Nutcracker and I, The Cunning Little Vixen, Petrushka and Nitin Sawhney’s Dystopian Dream with Wang Ramirez.

Hillel is a video artist, producer and video designer based in London. In 1998, he graduated with a film and politics degree and went on to direct a number of documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 before establishing the digital media company YeastCulture. His first major project was to create visuals for Nitin Sawhney’s global Prophesy tour. He then went on to produce and direct visuals for artists including Akram Khan (DESH), Philharmonia Orchestra (RE-RITE and Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle), Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra (Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre), Courtney Pine (Live tour), the Berliner Philharmoniker and Peter Sellars (Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen), Boy Blue (The Five), The Matthew Herbert Big Band (Tour) and Hussein Chalayan (Gravity Fatigue) at Sadler’s Wells.

Henshall trained at the Royal Ballet Lower and Upper Schools and performed professionally as a company artist with English National Ballet from 2009 to 2015. Her rehearsal director credits include: Akram Khan Company’s Outwitting the Devil and Jungle Book reimagined, English National Ballet’s Creature (choreographed by Akram Khan) and Nora (choreographed by Stina Quagebeur), New English Ballet Theatre’s 2018 season, and Birmingham Royal Ballet’s Embrace (choreographed by George Williamson). Henshall’s performing credits include: West End production An American in Paris (choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon), On The Town Japan Tour (choreographed by Ashley Page), New English Ballet Theatre’s 2017 season, and Nutcracker Reimagined (choreographed by Jenna Lee). She has also appeared on the BRIT Awards with Wayne McGregor, in Disney’s Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and was a second year tutor at the Central School of Ballet during the 2020/21 school year. Henshall is also director of Staffordshire Youth Ballet, and is mentored by Kerry Nicholls.

Pan was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Studying at the Federal Academy of Ballet in Malaysia, he was offered a scholarship to study at the Central School of Ballet in London. During his second year at Central, Pan worked with Dublin City Ballet in Giselle, dancing the part of Peasant Pas De Deux. After touring with Notre Dame de Paris for three years, he spent five years in Celine Dion’s show A New Day in Las Vegas. Throughout his career, Pan has worked with different choreographers and directors, including Jiří Kylián, Rui Horta, Itzik Galili, Richard Wherlock, Roberto Galvan, Mia Michaels,Karl Schreiner, Christian Spuck, Carlus Pardrissa, Johann Kresnik, Jean Renshaw and Philipp Stölzl. Pan joined Akram Khan Company in 2018 as a dancer in Outwitting the Devil.

Towler has had a long professional career dancing with Richard Alston Dance Company and Rambert. She has worked with internationally celebrated choreographers including Christopher Bruce, Wayne McGregor, Mats Ek and Jiří Kylián, to name a few. She was nominated for a TMA award for Achievement in Dance and the Critics’ Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Female Performance. She has choreographed many works for Rambert and for BBC, ITV and live events. She is working with the Royal Ballet School and English National Ballet School to teach contemporary technique; also continues to work with leading companies. She joined Akram Khan Company in the summer of 2021 as rehearsal director.