If you only have 1 night out this month

I confess, these days I am not always at the fore of all that is going on culturally. A new restaurant opens, and I visit 3 months later. A show opens, and by the time I’ve arranged a baby sitter and a date that works, tickets are sold out. So it was an incredible Birthday treat to be taken to Akram Khan’s new production of Until the Lions, on the opening night, no less.

AKRAM KHAN, CHRISTINE JOY RITTER AND CHING-YING CHIEN IN UNTIL THE LIONS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE. Photograph-JEAN LOUIS FERNANDEZ

Akram Khan is a dancer and choreographer. His training was in the classical Indian dance form Kathak, but he discovered contemporary dance in his late teens. The result is a fusion of styles that is distinctly unique. Until the Lions is an interpretation, of the epic Mahabharata. A story of the princess Amba, who is abducted on her wedding day, raped and then invokes the gods to seek revenge.

I knew none of this as I sat in the auditorium of the Roundhouse. Being opening night they had clearly underestimated the number of people collecting tickets at the box office, the start time of 7:30 came and went and we chatted away. Just out of the corner of my eye, I saw a dancer prowling on stage and slowly a hush fell over the auditorium as all eyes were focused on one single bare footed dancer collecting sticks. A single female voice started singing, with absolute clarity.

CHING-YING CHIEN AND CHRISTINE JOY RITTER IN AKRAM KHANS UNTIL THE LIONS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE. Photograph-JEAN LOUIS FERNANDEZ

Though it is Akram Khan who is the master behind the magic, it was princess Amba, dancer Ching-Ying Chien, who stole the show. She managed to put such emotion into every movement and yet with such bodily control. The rape scene demonstrated a real brutality, but it was done with such elegance and grace that there was no hint of the lewd or grotesque. The music added an eerie and slightly mesmerizing atmosphere to the show. It was produced by four musicians, onlookers to the unfolding events and the most powerful aspect was their use of drumming in time to the beating of the dancers feet. The staging was deceptively simple, as the location demands it was set in the round. It looked like a slice of a tree, with three cracks through the middle rising and falling as if breathing at crucial moments.

AKRAM KHAN IN UNTIL THE LIONS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE. Photograph- JEAN LOUIS FERNANDEZ

CHING-YING CHIEN IN AKRAM KHANS UNTIL THE LIONS AT THE ROUNDHOUSE. Photograph- JEAN LOUIS FERNANDEZ

Until the Lions is 80 minutes of spell binding dance and music. It’s groundbreaking work, challenging the very way we think of dance as an art form, as not a tutu or violin was in sight. If you only have one evening out this month, make it this show.

Tickets £10-£39.

Until the Lions runs from 9^th-24^th January at the Roundhouse, click here for tickets.

All Photos by JEAN LOUIS FERNANDEZ