>From what I can tell, you can still get some tickets for the show through today through the American India Foundation - part of the ticket will go towards AIF's program and there's and after-party at the Funky Buddha Lounge.
---------------------------------------------------- Forwarded Message: From: Gurnani, Anjali Date: October 13, 2003 This show is completely sold out exept for the tickets AIF is holding untill end of day today! Read the show's great review in the New York Times to learn more about this highly anticipated performance! Date: 10/24/2003 Time: 07:30 - 11:30 PM Event: Akram Khan Company with Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney in KAASH Place: Museum of Contemporary Art: 220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago Tickets: $30 each, includes free admission till 10.30pm to a VIP after-event party at the Funky Buddha Lounge, 728 West Grand Avenue Event+party tickets available exclusively at: http://www.aifoundation.org $11 per ticket is tax deductible, donated directly to the American India Foundation Limited numbers of exclusive event/club tickets are available till October 13. After purchase, tickets will be available for pick-up at the Will Call station at the MCA The New York Times October 12, 2003 PAGE TURNER The Agile Ambassador at Large By EMILY EAKIN Globalization was supposed to incite not just the clashing of cultures but the creation of dazzling new forms. In the case of the Anglo-Bangladeshi choreographer and dancer Akram Khan, it actually has. Khan, 29, would have easily earned notice for his preternatural grace and stunning athleticism. But it is his polished, utterly novel meld of East and West that has made his fledgling company's performances among the most talked about in the dance world. His startling innovations are on virtuosic display in ''Kaash,'' his first full-length work, which has its New York premiere at the Joyce Theater this week. The piece begins in near darkness with an explosion of movement as Khan leads a column of four dancers lunging across the stage, their arms scything the air at electrifying speed. The warlike gestures -- angular, intricate and exceedingly precise -- come from kathak, an ancient North Indian dance form, and evoke Shiva, the Hindu god of creation and destruction (and, not incidentally, dance). The pounding soundtrack, composed by Nitin Sawhney, is inspired by kathak as well, incorporating both the tabla (an Indian hand drum) and the tala (rhythmic chanting). But the astounding pace, rigorous ensemble work and minimalist costumes -- sleeveless black tunics and leggings -- are a legacy of the West. The combined effect is riveting and culturally unclassifiable. Stylistically speaking, Khan's closest kin may be neither kathak nor Martha Graham but the lyrical martial-arts-inspired choreography of global blockbusters like ''Charlie's Angels,'' ''The Matrix'' and ''Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.'' What those films accomplish with special effects, Khan and his company do unassisted in bare feet. Cultural fusion, Khan insists, was not a conscious goal; exposed to a smorgasbord of styles, his body simply got confused. And no wonder. Born in London to Bangladeshi parents, he grew up moonwalking to Michael Jackson and improvising Bengali folk dances in the living room. When he was 7, his mother took him to see Sri Pratap Pawar, England's presiding kathak guru, who agreed to take him on. It wasn't ntil he was nearly 20 that Khan encountered ballet and modern dance. The experience, he says, was shocking, but his body -- infinitely adaptable -- made the most of it. He graduated from the Northern School of contemporary Dance in Leeds with the highest honors ever awarded for a performing-arts degree and has been racking up prizes ever since. ''Kaash'' derives its title from the Hindi word for ''if.'' As Khan bashfully explains it, the word conveys a wish that in Indian tradition is taboo: what if you could question the authority of your guru, your tradition or your gods? But this, of course, is precisely what Khan, intentionally or not, has done. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------ visit http://www.geocities.com/sapacchicago email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe sapac" in msg body to unsubscribe
