Night of Remembering - Thikra

Thikra, meaning "memory", "recollection", "thoughts of the past", "remembrance" in Arabic, is a performance that evokes, through contemporary dance, the idea that "without a past, there is no future".

The choreography and the dancers will embody the concepts of ancestral knowledge, forgetting, and collective learning and healing. 

The performance will depict an imagined annual gathering performed to connect with ancestral knowledge. 

For one night, the present and past unite and embrace. 

Thikra incorporates Bharatanatyam and Western Contemporary dancers, bridging a confluence of hybrid cultures, traditions and perspectives. The work is not an exploration of different styles nor is it a commentary on east meets west connections. The choreography aims to employ the inherent traditions and rituals embodied within the Bharatanatyam dancers through a creative lens of dance making in collaboration with the contemporary dancers. 

The three chapters that follow the journey of Thikra will be devised through the exploration of literary and mythological inspired images that have been inherited over time. 

The collective voices of the empowered female ensemble will be reflective of a coming together that transcends the specificity of the two styles inherent in the work, bringing an emphasis on the Experiential. 

At the same time, I would like to give recognition to the maternal qualities of our perpetually transforming civilisations, that have shaped our past and will continue to shape our future. 

- Akram Khan