Akram Khan Company (GB)
Thikra: Night of Remembering

With Akram Khan, one of the most important choreographers of the 21st century returns to the festival. Back in 2001, he showed his first, already celebrated solo Rush in the frame of the [8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series. Since then, he has choreographed, among other things, an equally hailed part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Now, directly following its world premiere in the summer of 2025, the long-awaited new production, Thikra: Night of Remembering, comes to the Burgtheater at ImPulsTanz. With striking visual direction from award-winning visual artist Manal AlDowayan, Khan and his artistic team once more take a deep dive into the mythological and ritual layers of the desert landscape of Wadi AlFann, in AlUla, and its inhabitants in order to propitiate past, present and future. On stage: a brilliant cast of 14 female dancers who, with Bharatanatyam as well as Western contemporary dance, merge hybrid cultures, traditions and perspectives. And in the brand new piece by Akram Khan, the exceptional artistic talent with roots in Bangladesh, a concern for life on Earth is once again coupled with a gripping firework of dance, music and visuals. Or, to quote the Financial Times: here’s somebody “who speaks tremendously of tremendous things”.