“WE start listening when we stop waiting to speak.”
A pause, then Akram Khan repeats himself: we start listening when we stop waiting to speak. I hear him, but it takes several moments for the gravity of his words to land. The pithiness is disarming; a rare moment in life when we stumble upon true wisdom.
I am deep into a meandering conversation with the British-Bangladeshi choreographer when the maxim arises. It crops up in the context of something quite pedestrian: the distractibility of his young children and the challenge of competing with a screen for their attention. He reflects on his own childhood, recalling he was “never a good talker” and often unsure of what to say. His solution was to listen to others. And listen well.
It's a simple mantra that serves as both a moral principle and artistic manifesto for the critically acclaimed choreographer. Khan’s work is rooted in storytelling – the stories of self,
