Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide
March 17, 2018

Akram Khan Company’s latest work, XENOS, is many things. It is the last full-length solo to be performed by the British choreographer and performer himself before retiring. It is a visceral and richly textured intersection between music and dance of many forms. It is a visually arresting experience on a scale so grand that, at times, you don’t believe your eyes. And, at its heart, it is a sobering exploration of the human experience of war and its ripple-like effects on humanity.

This makes for grim viewing. But as the program note tells us, no other work of Khan’s has aligned so closely with his personal journey as an artist. There is a raw urgency in this story that oozes from every part of Khan’s body. Although he seeks to tell the story of certain others – something which he sees as his personal duty so that their stories are not lost – Khan’s performance is so visceral and nuanced that he becomes the everyman. We see ourselves on stage: victims of, but also complicit in, a collapsing humanity.

“Xenos” means stranger or foreigner. It is a reference to the experience of non-white colonial soldiers...