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Khan in step with national ballet stars

The National Ballet of China has joined forces with the Akram Khan Company, one of the world's leading contemporary dance troupes to premiere the major contemporary dance bahok, in Beijing next January, before touring the world.

"This is a unique collaboration for both Akram Khan Company and China's classical ballet flagship company," said Farooq Chaudhry, producer of the British company, at a press conference on Friday.

It's the first time an independent dance company from Britain has collaborated with the National Ballet of China in such unique way, he noted, adding that the two companies' different cultural perspectives and dramatically diverse dance styles will ensure bahok is one of the most exciting cultural events of 2008 anywhere in the world.

Akram Khan (pictured), 33, is regarded as one of the most acclaimed choreographers working today. He is also one of the most outstanding male dancers of his generation, renowned for his inter-cultural, inter-disciplinary collaborations and for challenging conventional ideas of traditional dance forms.

The collaboration with the National Ballet of China represents a continuation of Khan's interest in combining different dance traditions to create a new and original dance vocabulary.

Bahok, a Bengali word meaning "carrier", includes four dancers from the National Ballet of China and five dancers from the Akram Khan Company. It is being choreographed by Khan and this is the first time he will not be appearing in one of his own productions.

Bahok will focus on the dynamics of modern China and avoid cliched notions and symbols. There will also be elements of Chinese folk dancing and Kathak, Indian traditional dance, as well as Western/modern and classical dance vocabulary.

After the world premiere at Tianqiao Theater in Beijing, bahok will tour Asia, Europe and America. It will also go to Britain in March, as part of Liverpool's Year as European Capital of Culture.

Discovery on BTV's New Year wish list

Beijing TV Station (BTV) is to launch Discovery Channel programs, nightly, after New Year.

Covering a variety of subjects, including history, culture, technology and geography, the programs will be broadcast on BTV-8.

Discovery will also select 50 hours of programming on environmental protection and ecology, originally part of the network's new Green Planet Channel, launched in America. This will screen on BTV-8. Highlights include a series of documentaries on Olympic-related topics.

Discovery Channel and BTV have been cooperating since 1997 and BTV has been airing Discovery programs for a decade. Their programs are much loved, a senior BTV official Pang Yuzhen (pictured right) said.

Zhang Fang (pictured left), vice-president of Discovery Networks Asia's China operation also revealed that Discovery is cooperating with Readers' Digest to launch a magazine, next year. It will be an English-language journal sold in Asia, but he said a Chinese version was likely in the future.

China Daily-Xinhua

(China Daily 12/18/2007 page18)