I think working with Akram is something very
special. He's very passionate and very present
with everything he's doing. You feel his full
commitment to whatever work he's doing, so
whether that was Dust or whether that's now
Giselle, he's in creative mode and he's going
to give it everything that he has and that's
infectious. When you get into the studio and
he's up dancing just as much as you are, you
can't help but try and raise yourself to an
entirely new level and that's really exciting.
You think that you've pushed your body as
much as you can and moved differently, and
then you see him do something that you couldn't
even imagine, and you say: 'OK, no, I can
go further!' So it's that constant stepping
stone of saying: 'No, actually, my body
can do more than I even thought.'
For me, it was incredible. It completely opened
my eyes to a new form of dance, a new form
of classical dance that I knew about and
had worked with people before in as well,
but not as in-depth as with Akram. It's the
way he works and the way he thinks, it's
just so inspiring to the dancer. He passes
so much information to you that you're allowed
to express yourself within his movement. It
was incredible, it really was an amazing experience
for me, from start to finish.
For me, as an artist, it's really interesting
to see how he works and Akram is really somebody who... He's talking and you're hearing his
thoughts; you're with him and you know he's
changing things every day. Some choreographers
keep it much more internal. Akram tells
you everything. He gives you so much information
that you might not necessarily need but you
know it's in there, so when he's creating
you can help and you're on the same path as
him, because you know where he's thinking, you
know where his thoughts are so you have an
understanding of where you need to take the
work. It's a lot of background information
but it's there and it's important because
it can come in and you might need it at any
point, if you know what I mean.
The process so far has been amazing. He's
definitely trying to re-imagine it and the
nice thing is that we, as the dancers, really
feel a part of that. He doesn't come in and
say: 'Ok you're doing this, you're doing
that, end of story'; it's really a discussion
between his team, obviously a lot with him
behind-the-scenes but also before every rehearsal
we sit down, we talk about ideas or different
inspirations and he said himself that he wants
us to be involved.
This is a phenomenal time for us because usually,
as ballet dancers, we're told what to do and
we have to do that. This, we have a chance
to mould and influence the steps but even
how certain characters come about:
what are their real feelings about these situations
and it's taking the underlying ideas of Giselle
and breathing a new breath into that. Finding
what does that mean in today's world, who
is Giselle? Who is Hilarion? Who is Albrecht? And what do those mean to us?
It's a complete different vocabulary from ours. We have our classical vocabulary. We've done things
before where we've had to adapt and learn
a whole new way of working but with him what's
so interesting is we're taking as much as
we can from him and he's really merging the
two things together so there's no set example
of this is how you should do it. He's really
making an in-between so you're working to
try and find something. That's what I think
is so interesting: you keep working and there's
no set example. You're finding it yourself
and you keep working until you find something,
until he kind of sees and goes: 'Yes! That's
what I'm looking for!', something unique,
he wants something different.
Akram, as I've said before, gives you so much
information and he allows you to also...
He gives you information that you're allowed
to develop and create as well. I don't know
if that's the right way to say it but he gives
you the opportunity to put your mark on it.
For us, as dancers, we're in the complete
process together, I feel. What is amazing,
we were talking about it today with some of the other dancers, is the energy and the passion he has.
It just makes you wanna work and makes you wanna work harder
and harder and you've done an hour
and a half, two hours of work and your body's
really hurting and you're really tired and
he goes: "OK! Let's do it once more!" and you just
want to do it the best for him and for the
piece. You feel if you don't do it full out
it's not going to be the best that
you can give him. It's very few people
that have that quality of bringing a
whole room together and of pushing them towards
one goal. We do
as a group and it feels that the energy builds
and builds and builds and builds
and builds and it's it's absolutely amazing.
You forget everything... until you get to 6:30pm you go: 'Oh God! That really hurts!'
'Oh God! That's gonna hurt tomorrow!' Then
you wake up in the morning, you think: 'Oh God, that hurts!', and then you
start again and then you forget about it and
you push and you push and you push!
It's amazing. It's a fantastic atmosphere
to work in.
