Akram Khan’s solo show DESH has won this year’s Olivier award for Best New Dance Production.
The celebrated choreographer and performer took inspiration from his homeland to create the full length show which was staged at Sadler’s Wells in October last year.
With the help of Oscar-winning Chinese visual artist Tim Yip, fellow Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist Michael Hulls, Indian writer and poet Karthika Nair and the Olivier Award-winning composer Jocelyn Pook, Khan used his body and voice to reflect on life in Bangladesh.
Arguably one of Khan’s most personal works, DESH fought off ROH2’s The Metamorphosis, ZooNation’s Some Like It Hip Hop and Les Ballets C de la B’s Gardenia to be crowned winner in the Best New Dance Production category.
The Olivier Awards website asked Khan whether the personal nature of the show made the win even more special, with the performer agreeing, saying: “It does. For my parents I hope because it’s really revealing our lives, my relationship with my mother, my father and about generations and about heritage, about culture and how you pass that down.”