bahok - The Lowry - 04/02/10 by Kashif Naveed

I don’t like modern dance, or ballet or any other form of dance theatre … much. I say much for I haven’t really been to watch many modern dance, or ballet or any other form of dance theatre … that much. So it was with some trepidation that I ventured down to the Lowry Theatre this week to catch the much heralded production of Bahok.

Bahok was originally a collaboration between China’s classical ballet flagship company, the National Ballet of China, and the Akram Khan Dance Company set to a scintillating and eclectic musical score from Nitin Sawhney. The premise of the piece is a simple one, communication. Meeting in one big melting pot that is one of the busiest airport lounges in the world, eight people from different parts of the world are suddenly thrown together. How they interact is the key to this wonderful put together piece.

However, this is more than just different people that speak different languages being thrown together. Eight dancers from diverse cultures, traditions and dance backgrounds: Chinese, Korean, Indian, South-African, Slovakian and Spanish, put us through varied range of stories and emotions that utterly captivate the audience. Furthermore, it does not shy away from the breadth of dance styles (I may not have watched dance, but dear reader know enough from what I’ve seen to distinguish the various styles) taking in kathak and classical ballet as well as contemporary moves.

This is more than just about dance. The production does not shy away from the need to inject speaking elements or use props such as the large indicator board that dominates the centre of the stage. It’s assortment of statements that range from the mundane to the eccentric, but both equally thought provoking, provide a wonderful focal point.

Indeed, I think the real message of this cunningly crafted production is more than just about the language of dance, but how we use language around us to communicate, be it dance, language, the written word or even the universal language of music. This was no better illustrated in the piece where the immigration authorities are questioning an English speaking woman, whose Korean friend speaks little English, and so the indicator board begins to act as an unofficial translator, whilst the others dance to a subtle score that utterly captures the audience’s attention from the get go.

The production is more than just being a tool to be thought provoking. It has humour in parts; that allows the audience to laugh with the performers; apathy, that allows us to sympathise with them; anger, that allows us to feel fear of those around them and a sense of belonging. By the end the eight strangers we met at the start have become very much part of one homogenous group and the audience is not exempted.

Clearly this is a riveting piece, yet it does have moments where things do not work as well as other elements of the whole feature or when it tries a little too hard to convey its central themes. However, in a 75 minutes piece, these moments do not last long and a fantastic finale quickly rediscovers its intensity as the dancers combine in wonderful synchronistic machinations to the thumping beats from Sawney as they bid farewell to each other. I thought I didn’t like modern dance, or ballet or any other form of dance theatre … that much. I guess I was wrong.