In Entertainment today, we step into the dynamic world of contemporary dance.

We hear parts of an interview with two of the world’s leading dancers: Sylvie

Guillem and Akram Khan. We meet them backstage at the Sadler’s Wells

theatre in London. They talk about dancing together in a new show called

Sacred Monsters. The piece is a ‘duet’ (a dance for 2 performers) accompanied

by a live band. And watch out - Sacred Monsters is about to go on a worldwide

tour!

As we’ll hear, the show is an exciting challenge for both dancers who trained

in very different styles of classical dance.

Sylvie Guillem is a ballet dancer, a ballerina. She caused a sensation at the

Paris Opera when, at the age of just 19, she was promoted to the role of star

dancer by her teacher Rudolf Nureyev. She then caused a storm of outrage in

her native France when, just six years later, she left the Paris Opera and joined

the Royal Ballet in London.

Akram Khan was born in the UK and is of Bangladeshi origin. From a young

age he was trained in the Kathak style of dancing (the classical style of north

India) and he is now one of the most innovative modern dancers working in

Britain.

First here’s Sylvie Guillem talking about why she was drawn towards

contemporary dance and away from the classical ‘repertoire’, the complete

range of ballet works. As you listen, try to catch the expression she uses to

refer to the fact that she began performing classical ballet roles when she was a

very young dancer. 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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Sylvie Guillem

‘I already decided for a long time not to dance a lot of roles from the repertoire because I

started classical very young and I had time to do all of the repertoire and many, many, many,

many times! So I was born on stage and I was really asking myself: But what am I doing here?

Because there was a lack of weight in what I was doing and then it was only physical, and so I

was not interested by that any more. I spent sometime doing that, and now I want to spend

some time doing something else.’

Amber: Did you catch it? Sylvie Guillem says ‘I was born on stage’!

Listen again and notice the expressions ‘to spend time’ doing something, and

‘a lack of weight’. Sylvie says she was drawn towards contemporary dance

because she felt there was ‘a lack of weight’ in her classical ballet. In English,

if we say something is ‘weighty’, we mean it is serious or important.

Sylvie Guillem

‘I already decided for a long time not to dance a lot of roles from the repertoire because I

started classical very young and I had time to do all of the repertoire and many, many, many,

many times! So I was born on stage and I was really asking myself: But what am I doing here?

Because there was a lack of weight in what I was doing and then it was only physical, and so I

was not interested by that any more. I spent sometime doing that, and now I want to spend

some time doing something else.’

Amber: Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan have very different bodies. Sylvie is

famously tall with very long limbs, and Akram Khan is smaller and stronger.

Here’s Akram talking about how his body remembers the very many

complicated moves in the show Sacred Monsters – he says it’s his ‘muscle

memory’ at work as well as his mind! And the dancers have to be sensitive

to each other’s movements so the piece does not become too ‘mechanical’ –

as if it were being performed by machines!

Akram Khan

‘I think it’s the muscle memory, but your mind is also working. If it’s not working, then the

piece doesn’t live – it becomes mechanical. And so we’re constantly thinking - always

adjusting and negotiating with each other. If it’s too perfect, or if it’s mechanical, then it

doesn’t live and so the piece has to live.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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Amber: So the dancers are constantly ‘adjusting and negotiating’ with each other – they

make small changes and they work around each other successfully.

Now here’s a list of the language we focussed on in the programme today.

 

duet

repertoire

to be born doing something

to spend time doing something

weighty

muscle memory

mechanical

adjusting

negotiating