Akram Khan

Akram Khan OBE (born 1974 in Wimbledon, London, to Bangladeshi parents) is one of the most celebrated and influential choreographers and dancers of his generation. He trained in Kathak — the classical South Asian dance form — from the age of seven, and later studied contemporary dance at De Montfort University, Leicester. He founded the Akram Khan Company in 2000 and quickly rose to international prominence through a series of works that fuse Kathak with contemporary movement: Desh (2011), Until the Lions (2016), and XENOS (2018) among them. His commission from English National Ballet to create a new Giselle (2016) was a landmark event: his version, set against the backdrop of the First World War and colonialism, with Giselle reimagined as a migrant worker, was a critical sensation and is widely considered one of the greatest modern reworkings of a classical ballet. He was awarded the OBE in 2005.