Juliette Binoche, the French actress, described her collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Akram Khan as "a little bit of a crazy journey". Binoche and Khan spoke in Abu Dhabi before performances of their dance-theatre show In-I at the Emirates Palace hotel tonight and tomorrow. The Oscar-winning star of The English Patient and Chocolat had never danced before she teamed up with British-born Kahn, who has worked with Sylvie Guillem, the French prima ballerina, and Kylie Minogue, the pop singer.
"It was a huge risk for both of us; an emotional journey for Akram and a physical one for me," she said. "There's nowhere to hide on stage. I chose a rehearsal room in Paris with no mirrors so that I couldn't see how bad I was to begin with." The pair admitted that they had toned down their performance, removing a kiss from one scene, out of respect for Arab audiences. "We adapted it because we had to and although the intensity has stayed the same, we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," Binoche said.
They explained that the show's title, In-I, represents the quest to find one's inner self. A hybrid between dance and drama, it is an "emotional journey tracing the themes of longing, love, disappointment, anger and forgiveness between a man and a woman". "Being brought up in London with my Bangladeshi roots it has been a confusing journey," Khan said. "The show is all about the way we try to find a new common language and to build a bridge between people and cultures."
pkennedy@thenational.ae
