'What you cannot imagine': Spirituality in Akram Khan's Vertical Road

Abstract

This article considers the interface between artistic and spiritual inquiry through an examination of Vertical Road (2010), an ensemble performance work by the British contemporary choreographer Akram Khan. Khan is well known for his cross-cultural explorations, critical appreciation of which has tended to focus on the hybrid nature of his movement vocabulary and aesthetic. This article considers the intercultural nature of his work in terms of the ideas, beliefs and values that it embodies. In particular it examines Vertical Road in relation to some key tenets of contemporary progressive spirituality. It suggests that Vertical Road provides a poetic and insightful reflection on our contemporary spiritual condition. Critical appreciation of Khan's work has tended to focus on its cross-cultural significance

Touching the ineffable: Collective creative collaboration, education and the secular-spiritual in performing arts

“…(Beigbeder cited in Gide [1949Gide [ ] 1971 Monica Bini (2009) suggests the spiritual is 'better experienced than explained' and in the performing arts we probably sense this to be true whenever our practice draws us both out of ourselves and yet deeper within ourselves. Jayne Stevens (2012) reminds us that 'spirituality' derives from the Latin word spiritus, generally translated as 'breathing' or 'air', related to spirit as, 'the animating or vital principle in man' (Oxford English Dictionary 2011). Recent literature certainly reflects a pluralized 'spiritualities' rather than a singular construct, thereby embracing a range of traditional, postmodernist and constructivist ideologies and frameworks.…”

Glancing back – looking forward

“…to me that this journal can (and does) traverse vast ground, from research into western theatrical performance/history (Huxley and Burt 2014;Stevens 2012) through to less well-known, more esoteric therapeutic healing modes (Keeney and Kenney 2014), and covers a wide range of topics such as dance, sexuality, gender and culture (Newman 2015;Wright 2014). Other topics include: somatic dance practices marked by non-hierarchal democratic methods of working (Ramaswamy and Deslauriers 2014;Deasy 2014), to areas of dance, philosophy, deep ecology and dance therapy (LaMothe 2012;Margolin 2014).…”