“The hunter will always tell the story until the lions can have their say.” An African proverb. Also, stimulus material for choreographer Akram Khan, whose show ‘Until the Lions’ opened recently in London to critical acclaim. Khan’s work is described as ‘an original reworking of the epic Mahabharata’ that focuses on female characters and their stories.
It seems strange that Akram Khan, currently presenting work on the London stage that redresses the under-representation of women, is being criticized for his views on women choreographers in dance. What’s going on?
A recent panel discussion hosted by Rambert, the UK’s oldest established dance company, raised concerns about the lack of opportunity for women choreographers. Akram Khan’s response, that the number of women choreographers given commissions should not be raised ‘for the sake of it’ has seen him criticized in the liberal press for failing to recognize how difficult it is for women to get a break in the dance industry. The fact that Khan favours a meritocratic approach to commissioning (over any ‘quota’ based system) has seen him receive support in the conservative press.
Discussion has reached a climax this week, with 400 artists signing an open letter to The Stage that asks Khan to be mindful of his privileged position as a leading practitioner.
This got me thinking about the gender imbalance in the theorists that are promoted for study in my own IB theatre course. It’s easy to find male theatre theorists, especially those from Western Europe, often white, whereas there are far fewer female theorists, designers, and directors. I’m conscious that, given that theatre classes are often full of young women, we should focus on creative women within the curriculum whenever we can. It’s not always easy to achieve this, however, and so perhaps I should worry less about the under-representation of women in my course material and focus on encouraging my students to investigate the reasons why women are under-represented instead.
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