"Akram has been a pillar of our programme"
This October, Akram Khan Company celebrates its 25th anniversary with a residency at Sadler’s Wells. Two major productions will be staged in Angel and Stratford.
Sadler’s Wells Theatre will host the UK premiere of Thikra: Night of Remembering from October 28 to November 1.
The work is a collaboration between Khan and Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan.
Meanwhile, the family show Chotto Desh, adapted by Sue Buckmaster, returns to London. This time it will be staged at Sadler’s Wells East.
For 25 years, Akram Khan Company has become one of the world’s most innovative dance groups.
Led by Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Akram Khan, the company fuses kathak with contemporary dance.
Thikra: Night of Remembering premiered earlier in 2025 in AlUla, Saudi Arabia. The production features an all-female cast of contemporary and Bharatanatyam dancers.
The performance draws inspiration from mythology, sacred rituals and the cultural heritage of AlUla. Khan and AlDowayan explore ancestry, memory and collective healing through dance.
The title builds on the Arabic word thikra, meaning memory or remembrance. Khan’s vision centres on the belief that “without a past, there is no future”.
AlDowayan’s international reputation brings further weight. Her work sits in the British Museum, Centre Pompidou and Guggenheim. She represented Saudi Arabia at the 60th Venice Biennale.
The piece is supported by Aditya Prakash’s score, Gareth Fry’s sound design, Zeynep Kepekli’s lighting and dramaturgy by Blue Pieta.
Alongside this, Chotto Desh offers younger audiences an entry point to Khan’s cross-cultural storytelling. It blends kathak, contemporary dance, animation, text and music.
Chotto Desh, meaning “small homeland”, follows a boy’s journey between Britain and Bangladesh. It reimagines Khan’s Olivier Award-winning solo DESH into a family performance.
The show is rich with memories of grandparents, childhood tales and cultural identity. Its imaginative style makes it a favourite for family audiences.
To extend the experience, the company will host a family dance workshop at Sadler’s Wells East. The session combines storytelling with movement and is open to children aged seven and above.
Akram Khan MBE said: “Marking the 25th anniversary of Akram Khan Company by sharing our new and final production, Thikra: Night of Remembering, with our London audiences feels like a full circle moment; an opportunity to honour the past, the people and the stories that have shaped our journey.
“Thikra is a personal and spiritual reflection on memory, on what we choose to carry forward and what we must lay to rest.”
“As co-founders, Farooq and I are incredibly grateful to everyone who has walked with us. From our earliest supporters to those discovering the work for the first time.
“I’m also excited that Chotto Desh, so thoughtfully reimagined by Sue Buckmaster for young audiences, is part of this season as we introduce part of our story to a new generation at Sadler’s Wells East.
“I’m looking forward to gathering for this moment, to reflect, remember and celebrate together.”
Sir Alistair Spalding CBE, Artistic Director and Co-Chief Executive of Sadler’s Wells, said:
“Akram has been a pillar of our programme since I joined Sadler’s Wells, becoming one of our very first Associate Artists, and we’re therefore really pleased to be sharing not one, but two works to celebrate 25 years of Akram Khan Company.
“Akram is one of the seminal choreographic voices working today and you can see why in each of these shows.
“UK audiences will get an opportunity to see Thikra for the very first time – a fantastic collaboration with Manal AlDowayan with an all-female cast of Bharatanatyam dancers, and for younger audiences, there’s a beautiful bit of storytelling in Chotto Desh – a much-loved favourite.”
For Mavin Khoo, Creative Associate at Akram Khan Company, the 25-year milestone carries deep meaning.
He told DESIblitz: “We’ve grown up and into a space of understanding, with an awareness of our responsibility to hold onto the values that were so beautifully shared by those before us.
“Our aim is to pass these values on to a new generation of dancers, dance-makers, artists, and storytellers.
“So 25 years has meant that we’ve reached a point that feels like a midpoint between generations, between values, and in that, our responsibility within the dance ecosystem.”
Khoo said Thikra: Night of Remembering reflects the company’s evolution and Akram Khan’s personal and artistic growth:
“It reflects Akram’s own personal journey and his relationship with the world, where it sits, and his belief systems around the stories that need to be told.
“I’d like to reference the four-phase reflection: the early works are autobiographical, centred on Akram’s body and his sense of virtuosity; the second phase explores identity; the third is a curiosity about the intangible – something beyond; and the fourth phase is now, which acknowledges his own encounters with life, death and ritual.”
On collaborating with AlDowayan, Khoo said: “Manal AlDowayan provided a voice anchored in the specificity of the community that inspired us.
“The cultural specificity she facilitates and articulates and, importantly, the female voice she brings which gave a spine to Akram’s vision.”
Khoo added that Chotto Desh continues Khan’s storytelling legacy through the eyes of younger audiences:
“The key is that it truly commits to the element of storytelling, and through the eyes of a child, it explores the complexities of the world.
“It’s designed to inspire curiosity – a reflective curiosity so that children can see themselves in the work.”
Reflecting on standout moments from the past 25 years, Khoo said:
“His choreography for the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony took Akram’s work beyond the arts sector in terms of awareness of his work and the world being touched about what we had to say.
“Until the Lions was also significant because it invited audiences into a space to be immersed in work inspired by the Mahabharata – a canon that deeply influences Akram and those strong mythological protagonists who reflect the timeless human condition in its rawest form.
“Also, the Legacy work, which has been about creating space for stories from communities that might otherwise never be heard.”
As Akram Khan Company enters its next chapter, Thikra and Chotto Desh stand as testaments to 25 years of storytelling through movement, honouring the past while guiding a new generation towards the future.
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