From Mahabharata’s Gandhari to HBO’s ‘Succession’ : Meet Akram Khan, the Master of Movement and Storyteller of Our Time

The New York Times describes the opening of Akram Khan’s latest work “Gigenis: The Generation of the Earth” (2024) with visceral intensity: “A woman advances out of the darkness and begins to move her arms with violent force, as if slashing and stabbing an opponent we can’t see. She reaches down, seemingly pulling out her victim’s entrails and holding them over her face, which is contorted in a mask like grimace.” This terrifying tableau serves as the entry point into Khan’s most personal and politically charged work to date.

Writing for The New Yorker, Jennifer Homans provides an equally visceral account of the work’s opening: “She plants herself in a wide squat before us and seems to enter a trance of memory and prophecy: her body shakes; she hunches in fear; her hands make the shape of a gun and she shoots, pulls back, shoots again. Then, mouth wide open and eyes bulging fiercely, she appears literally to grow and expand, taking on a monstrous form as her presence consumes the stage.” Homans describes attending the performance as attending “a war. The war was a dance.”

“Gigenis,” which came to the Joyce Theater in 2024, represents what The New York Times calls “a kind of homecoming” for Khan. The piece is loosely inspired by the story of Queen Gandhari from the Indian epic the Mahabharata, who, as Homans explains, “miraculously produced a hundred sons only for them all to be killed in battle.” In this work, Khan both directs and performs, playing one of the sons killed by his brother.

The work’s relevance to our contemporary moment is no accident. As Khan explained to The New York Times: “I mean, the world is in a state of war. We just don’t know it, or we choose not to acknowledge it. We try not to talk about it because it just ruins the day.” This perspective positions “Gigenis” as both ancient story and urgent contemporary commentary.

Early Life and Formative Experiences

Born in London in 1974 into a Bengali background, Akram Khan’s artistic journey began remarkably early. According to Movedancewear, he was “encouraged by his mother” and “began folk dancing at 3 years old and learning Kathak at the age of 7,” later becoming classically trained in the latter form. This early immersion in traditional Indian dance would prove foundational to his entire artistic philosophy.

A pivotal moment came when Khan was just 13 years old and was cast in Peter Brook’s nine-hour stage production of the Mahabharata. As Khan told The New York Times, “It changed my life and the way I saw the world.” This experience with Brook’s legendary production planted the seeds for his lifelong engagement with the epic, which would later manifest in works including “Gnosis” (2009), “Until the Lions” (2016), and now “Gigenis.”

Khan graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 1998, bridging his classical Indian training with contemporary Western techniques. According to Movedancewear, “A year on, the innovative Akram Khan Company was founded by Khan and Farooq Chaudhry,” establishing the institutional framework for his groundbreaking fusion work.

Artistic Philosophy: Universality and Authenticity

Khan’s approach to storytelling draws directly from his experience with Peter Brook, from whom he learned two crucial lessons. The first, as he explained to The New York Times, is “an interest in universality”: “The loss of a child, no matter what culture you are from, you can at least identify with it.” This philosophy drives his ability to take ancient stories and make them speak to contemporary audiences across cultural boundaries.

The second lesson involves “a desire to tap into storytelling and genuine expression, or as he said, ‘not to act, but to be.'” This commitment to authenticity over performance has become a hallmark of Khan’s work, something he felt was “missing recently in contemporary dance.” Jennifer Homans notes in The New Yorker that this authenticity is achieved through the “immediacy” shared by classical Indian dance traditions: “We experience the events onstage less as a representation of a story than as something that is happening right now before us, even though they are also part of a seemingly eternal human tragedy.”

“The choreography draws on several Indian classical dance languages,” with “the theatricality of Kutiyattam in Venu, and the contrasting delicacy of Odissi in Sirikalyani Adkoli’s performance as the daughter.

Despite his deep training in classical Indian dance, Khan has long grappled with questions of cultural belonging. As he wrote in a recent email quoted by The New York Times: “When I was training in India, I always felt like a foreigner being from England, and I could see the way people looked at me. It was quite demoralizing.” This experience of cultural displacement has informed his artistic voice as someone who brings “to the arts the voice of the outsider with unique creations related to the twenty-first century.”

Return to Classical Roots

Since 2019, Khan has undergone what might be called a classical renaissance. Working with close collaborator Mavin Khoo, he has led three residencies in Britain, India, and Sri Lanka specifically for Indian and South Asian dancers. As he told The New York Times: “I’ve not really committed myself to working with Indian dancers until recently. And I thought, well hang on, let me just have a look at my own classical form.”

This return to his roots proved transformative. At a 2022 residency in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, he met the dancers who would become the cast of “Gigenis.” The seven-member ensemble includes specialists in various classical forms: four dancers including Khoo who specialize in Bharatanatyam, 18-year-old Sirikalyani Adkoli who practices Odissi, and Kapila Venu, a second-generation practitioner of Kutiyattam, an ancient form of Sanskrit theater from Kerala.

Movedancewear describes Khan as “a dancer turned non-dancing artist of choreography – he’s a kinetic artist who uses digital video to document the creative process of his works, meaning he can travel back to any moment along the choreographic journey.” His approach to creating new work is notably patient and organic: “For Khan, choreographing a new work takes time: conceptualizing mentally takes usually around a year for him and he later discovers the moves as they come to him.”

The creation of “Gigenis” exemplified this intuitive approach. Originally planning to present a festival of Indian dance, Khan realized during rehearsals in Italy that he wanted the performers “to come together to tell a single story, each performer using his or her style of Indian dance.” As he explained to The New York Times: “It was really instinctual, a process of trial and error, trial and error. As we went along, my idea of what I was looking for continually changed.”

Contemporary Relevance and Cultural Commentary

Khan’s ability to find contemporary resonance in ancient stories is perhaps nowhere more evident than in his unexpected source of inspiration for “Gigenis.” He told The New York Times that he drew from the TV show “Succession”: “I’d say it’s the closest one could get to the Mahabharata today, excluding the religious part of course. Fundamentally it’s about human flaws and the human desire for power. It’s always easy to hate each other.”

This connection between ancient epic and modern media demonstrates Khan’s skill at identifying universal themes that transcend time and culture. The Mahabharata’s exploration of familial conflict, political ambition, and the consequences of war speaks directly to contemporary global tensions.

Recognition and Global Impact

Khan was awarded an MBE for services to dance in 2005, and in 2022 was announced as the new Chancellor of De Montfort University. He is also an Honorary Graduate of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of London, Roehampton, and De Montfort Universities.

Movedancewear notes that “Akram Khan’s name is globally synonymous with cutting-edge choreography and dancing that’s modern in thought but steeped in tradition.” His works, including the acclaimed “Giselle” reimagining for English National Ballet in 2016 and more recent pieces like “Xenos,” are described as “daring, tap into raw emotion and have especially redefined the ballet and contemporary dance scene through fusion with styles from other cultures and philosophies.”

In “Gigenis,” Khan’s role shifted from choreographer to director, allowing the classical Indian dancers to bring their own material while he “edited and wove together” their contributions “into an impressionistic narrative about a woman (a queen, a mother, a wife) looking back on her life.” As Homans notes in The New Yorker, “Khan is careful to note that, although he directed the work, the choreography was made collectively.” This collaborative approach reflects his evolution as an artist and his growing confidence in working within classical Indian traditions.

The performance structure itself embodies this collaborative vision. Homans describes how “the queen is split into four: daughter, wife, mother, and her present elder self” with “the emotional structure of the piece” shifting so that “we are now inside the queen’s mind, and her memories are also ours.” This creates what she calls “a ritual of collective grief” where “the fourth wall disappears, and we feel we are part of the dance.”

The casting showcases the diversity of classical Indian forms. As Homans details: “The choreography draws on several Indian classical dance languages,” with “the theatricality of Kutiyattam in Venu, and the contrasting delicacy of Odissi in Sirikalyani Adkoli’s performance as the daughter. Bharatanatyam yields both the expressive partnering of Vijna Vasudevan and Renjith Babu (as the wife and her husband) and Mythili Prakash’s power and precision as the mother. The rhythmic and narrative thrust of Khan’s Kathak suffuses everything.”

Kapila Venu, who performs the opening solo in “Gigenis,” provides insight into Khan’s directorial approach. Speaking to The New York Times, she noted how performing without the traditional “vivid costumes and makeup” of Kutiyattam “creates an interesting kind of vulnerability.” Her interpretation of the opening sequence as representing “the monstrosity of war, and how violence begets violence” aligns perfectly with Khan’s vision of the work’s contemporary relevance.

Legacy and Continuing Influence

At 50, Akram Khan represents a unique voice in contemporary dance—one that bridges cultures, generations, and art forms. His journey from a young boy learning Kathak in London to an internationally acclaimed artist who can seamlessly blend classical Indian dance with contemporary storytelling reflects broader questions about identity, belonging, and artistic authenticity in our globalized world.

Through works like “Gigenis,” Khan continues to demonstrate that ancient stories, when approached with both reverence and boldness, can illuminate our present moment with startling clarity. His commitment to collaborative creation and cultural dialogue positions him not just as a choreographer or director, but as a vital cultural bridge-builder whose work speaks to the fundamental human experiences that connect us across all boundaries.