Interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and collaborative, it embodies the spirit of this year's Edinburgh International Festival.įorget fusion, what about alchemy? The festival's director of 13 years, Brian McMaster, has a gift for making lateral connections between artists and art forms and for taking risks, both in the work he presents and in the work he commissions. Incorporating Khan's direct speech to the audience, a two-part narrative written by the novelist Hanif Kureishi, live performance of cello, Indian percussion and Sufic chanting composed by the Italian Riccardo Nova, it played to packed houses at the 3,000-seat Playhouse. A stunning piece performed by seven dancers from his company, it juxtaposes contemporary Western dance and classical Indian Kathak forms with absolute clarity.
He prefers to talk about "confusion", though this could be a bit misleading, especially in reference to his latest work, Ma, which had its UK première in Edinburgh last week. "It sounds like a menu in a dodgy dance diner," he said recently. 'Fusion" is not a word favoured by the Anglo-Asian choreographer Akram Khan. This year's pulled off some coups, reports Helen Meany Edinburgh International Festival has built its reputation by taking risks.
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