To make this performance a pleasant experience for the artists and other members of the audience, PLEASE switch off your alarm watches, MOBILE PHONES and pagers. Eating and drinking, unauthorised photography and audio or video recording are forbidden in the auditorium. Thank you for your co-operation.
Akram Khan’s first full evening choreography, Kaash, which was also a collaboration with Anish Kapoor, was inspired by The Eye of Shiva by Amaury De Riencourt, a comparative study of Eastern and Western thought. One of the main ideas of this book is the notion that knowledge is never an end in itself, but serves a larger purpose, that of self-transformation or embodied wisdom.
In a similar way, one of Juliette Binoche's sources for In-I is the Sumerian myth of the Goddess InAn-Na. Her descent into hell, her crucifixion and her consequent rebirth, celebrate both the annual rebirth of nature in spring, as well as the sacred marriage between earth and heaven the female and male principles.
In their book, Myth and the Body, Stanley Keleman and Joseph Campbell argue that all myths, all storytelling, are about the body: its birth, its death and all the somatic transformation processes it undergoes, the latter always being described as moments of crisis, moments of loss going through fire, shredding one’s old skin for a new one, separating to find a new union.
In-I has the ambition or better, desire to look for these transformations by taking the risk to go into unknown territory: for Juliette to discover, in a different way, the visceral language of her body, and for Akram to dig into his personal memories in order to charge his acting emotionally. They do so by exchanging, by trusting the other to guide her/him into his/her world.
It is still early days in the creative process when I write these reflections and the result hoped for is still fragile, but already visible, both of them discovering new ways to express, to connect.
If successful, In-I will render this individual journey together both in its form showing how they both developed their craft by learning from the other and in the story it tells.
June 2008
形容不同形式的愛之希臘字詞
The Greek Words to Describe the Different Ways to Love
PORNEiA
POTHOS
MANiA
EROS
PHiLiA
孩子對母親的愛、被他人滋養的愛；生存所必需、消耗的愛；把他人變 成對象，填塞空虛的愛。
Love of a child for its mother, love that is nourished by the other. Vital need, consuming love. To make of the other an object. Love that fills a void.
以匱乏為方式的愛；被愛、被肯定的需要。
Love as lack, the need to be loved, recognised.
激情、依賴、嫉妒、佔有、獨有。攫取之愛（我希望你歸我所有）。
Passion, dependence, jealousy, possession, exclusivity. Captive love (I want you to myself).
The winged god (winged passion, phallus with wings). Desire for the beautiful, the good, dependence and consummation. It awakens aspiration towards beauty. To rediscover by experiencing the sacred.
朋友之愛；讓他人冒出來成為主體。有四個層次：
Love for friends, emergence of the other person as a subject. Philia has four layers:
Philia Physike
Philia Erotike
家庭（血緣）之愛；確認下一代為自身的延續。
Love for family (blood and flesh), recognising the child as an extension of oneself.
肉慾之吸引，卻沒有肉慾之行為；兩個靈魂相互吸 引；令我們甦醒，令我們成長。
Physical attraction, without the act itself. Two souls attracted to each other. Presence that awakens us, that makes us grow.
Philia Hetairike 友愛，聆聽別人，接納對方的差異、困難。交流 之愛。
Love for a friend, listening to the other, his difference, his problems. Love as exchange.
Philia Xenike 對陌生人的愛，好客之道、喜歡差異、變生多樣。
Love for the stranger, hospitality, loving difference, emergence of alterity.
Halfway through the creation of In-I, Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan decided to draw up a “state of the process” by interviewing each other.
J: Juliette
A: Akram
J: What is most challenging for you in the process we are going through?
A: Confronting myself. The reality of seeing myself: sometimes it isn’t what I like. What interests me about this project is the sense of not knowing. Starting from a place where I’m lost, and applying my tools and experiences much later.
J: What are your tools? Can you describe them?
A: Ways of making, generating material, ways of putting things together. I start with the diving board and then I look at the deep end and jump in. But with this project, in the beginning there was no diving board. We just had to dive in. Usually my body is very present in the kathak, the contemporary dance. But working with you, right from the first day, I realized I had to abandon my body, which is the place of not knowing, in order to learn again. I felt we both had to jump into your body. That’s the sense of “the wall”, “invisible/visible”, all these new sections we are developing together. Or the tango that I’ve never danced before. I am questioning all the time, doubting all the time. It is important to doubt.
J: Isn’t that uncomfortable?
A: It’s never comfortable. Even believing is uncomfortable. And it’s okay to be uncomfortable. For me, love is not comfortable.
J: So why did you choose this theme?
A: (laughing)I didn’t choose it. You did.
J: Is this an important theme for you to explore? Or is it accidental, because we met?
A: It’s not a theme I would have thought of myself. But what is interesting is that the theme allows me, or pushes me, to be naked. We both put ourselves in a place where we have a wall (quite literally), but we can’t hide behind it. There’s no moment where we can detach. And that’s scary.
J: Is it hard to share this process with a woman?
A: The fact that you’re a woman is never an issue. What is challenging is that we’re talking of the subject of love and the fact that we have to love each other. So where are the boundaries? Every day I am trying to define how we separate work from reality. Because there might be a danger. We only have each other on stage. It is a very special bond. It is a different kind of love because we are sharing the same dream.
J: Where do you feel we are closest?
A: On stage. And that has to remain so. There is such a sense of empathy and generosity. When you have a solo moment, I don’t feel any need to get the attention because when you’re doing it,
Oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche is one of the most celebrated actresses in France, where she is referred to affectionately as “La Binoche”. Born in Paris to a sculptor/theatre director and an actress, she studied at the National School of Dramatic Art of Paris and after graduation became a stage actress, occasionally taking small parts in French feature films. She first earned recognition in 1985 in Jean-Luc Godard’s controversial Hail Mary (Je vous salue, Marie). Her position as a French film star was further confirmed by her acclaimed performance in André Téchiné’s Rendez-Vous.
Her international breakthrough came in 1988 when she played Tereza in Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which was followed by another lead role in Les Amants du Pont Neuf directed by Léos Carax in 1991. Louis Malle’s Damage in 1992 brought her to a wider audience and was followed by Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Blue. Binoche returned to the screen in 1995 with The Horseman on the Roof (Le Hussard sur Le Toit). She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1996 for her role in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient. In 2000 she starred in the hit film Chocolat and was nominated for Best Actress awards across the globe. She followed this with Code Unknown (Code Inconnu, 2000) and Hidden (Caché, 2005), both by Michael Haneke.
Other recent films include Abel Ferrara’s Mary (2005); Anthony Minghella’s Breaking and Entering (2006); and Hou Hsao Hsien’s Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge, 2007). Her most recently completed film is Summer Hours (L’Heure d’été, 2008) by Olivier Assayas.
Akram Khan is one of the most acclaimed choreographers of his generation working in Britain today. Born in London in 1974, into a family of Bangladeshi origin, he began dancing at seven and studied with the great kathak dancer and teacher Sri Pratap Pawar.
After later studies in contemporary dance, he maintains his commitment to the classical kathak repertoire as well as to modern work. Among his best-known solo pieces are: Polaroid Feet (2001), Ronin (2003) and Third Catalogue (2005).
In August 2000, he launched his own company. Among his most notable company works are Kaash (2002), a collaboration with artist Anish Kapoor and composer Nitin Sawhney, which was featured in the 2003 Hong Kong Arts Festival; ma (2004), which won a South Bank Show Award (2005); and zero degrees (2005), a collaboration with dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, sculptor Antony Gormley and composer Nitin Sawhney, which was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2006.
zero degrees won Best Choreography in a Ballet or Dance Work and Akram Khan won the award for Best Male Dancer in the prestigious annual Helpmann Awards, Sydney, Australia, 2007. Sacred Monsters (2006) is a major work featuring ballerina Sylvie Guillem, with additional choreography by Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai Min. Another recent project is Variations (2006), a collaboration with London Sinfonietta to celebrate the 70th birthday of Steve Reich, which premiered in Cologne, and toured to Europe and the US. Khan was also invited by Kylie Minogue to choreograph a section of her Showgirl concert in November 2006.
A new work, bahok, a collaboration with the National Ballet of China, had its world premiere in Beijing in January 2008, and after performances in the UK, bahok is currently touring worldwide.
Khan is married and lives in London.
Angeles), Lia Haraki (Cyprus), Daniele Desnoyers (Montreal) and Sylvie Guillem (London) and to return to his passions of teaching, writing, leading workshops, lecturing and publishing in Belgium, Canada, the UK, Germany and Greece.
徐素滿 Hsu Su-Man
排練總監及舞蹈導師（茱麗葉．庇洛仙）
Rehearsal Director and Dance Coach (Juliette Binoche)
Born in Taiwan, Hsu Su-Man first studied dance at the National Institute of the Arts in Taipei, and then at the Folkwang Hochscule in Essen, Germany. She first joined the Ulmer Ballet and then joined Rosas. She stayed with the company for five years as a member and was the company rehearsal director for the last year.
On retiring from dancing she undertook extensive professional training as a shiatsu therapist. Hsu augmented her training with certificated studies in Pilates (mat work) and Japanese Facial massage. In 2005 she was listed in the London Evening Standard as one of the five top facialists in London. She started working with Juliette Binoche as her body therapist in 2006. In 2007 she became Juliette Binoche’s dance coach in preparation for In-I. She continues to work for this production as rehearsal director.
Farooq Chaudhry graduated from the London Contemporary Dance School in 1986. He worked in a variety of dance mediums in Europe, including as a company member of Rosas during the 1990s. In 1988 he received an Asian Achievement Award for his work as a dancer. He retired from dancing in 1999 and completed an MA in Arts Management from City University in London. In 2000 he and Akram Khan co-founded the Akram Khan Company.
Chaudhry has played a key role in forming innovative business models for Akram Khan’s artistic ambitions as well as offering creative support for his projects; he is currently the company producer. He is a “project champion” for Arts Council England’s Cultural Leadership programme and a member of Dance UK’s Board. He was recently acknowledged in a publication by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as one of the world’s top one hundred cultural actors and entrepreneurs.
Originally from Brazil, Bia Oliveira joined the Akram Khan Company in 2007 as associate producer through a Creative Leadership Award when she worked on bahok. She was previously at Londonbased Artsadmin, where she worked on arts projects for five years and has focused on producing, touring and management of arts projects, working across the spectrum of theatre, visual arts, dance, live art and performance. Oliveira has been involved with performance for over 20 years as a performer, producer and director.
The Hermès Foundation’s support for In-I reflects Hermès’s desire to pursue its existing collaboration with Akram Khan, one of Britain’s leading choreographers and dancers. Hermès first collaborated with Khan in 2006, on the Tokyo performance of his choreographic work Monstres sacrés (Sacred Monsters), produced by Hermès Japan and starring Sylvie Guillem. Now, the Hermès Foundation confirms its commitment to the work of Akram Khan with support for his new production, co-directed and performed with Juliette Binoche, and with a set designed by contemporary artist Anish Kapoor. Three powerful personalities come together to create a new work reflecting their distinctive sensibilities and imaginations. Each of them crosses boundaries to create a collective work mixing artistic fields.
Created in April 2008, the Hermès Foundation will steer Hermès’s existing patronage initiatives, and sharpen their strategic orientation. The Foundation focuses on four key areas in cultural and humanitarian fields: support for the contemporary arts, traditional craft skills, education and environmental research. The co-production of In-I is one of the Foundation's first projects as part of its programme of support for the contemporary arts.
