UK Premiere Of Aakash Odedra Company's SAMSARA Announced At Edinburgh International Festival 18 To 20 August

Aakash Odedra Company and Bagri Foundation present the UK premiere of an epic new dance work, Samsara Two extraordinary soloists meet in a mythic landscape at The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival, Thursday 18 to Saturday 20 August.

Aakash Odedra Company's Samsara is a collaboration between the extraordinary dancers, Aakash Odedra and Hu Shenyuan, two of the world's finest exponents of dance from their countries of origin, India and China.

Samsara had its world premiere in Melbourne in March 2020, immediately before the global lockdown. Over two years later it has its UK premiere at the Lyceum Theatre from 18 to 20 August as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, the company's debut Festival performances.

Aakash Odedra has attracted global attention for both his virtuoso Kathak performances and his contemporary choreography. One of the outstanding dancers of his generation in China, Hu Shenyuan was the standout performer in Yang Liping's Under Siege at Sadler's Wells in 2016.

Samsara takes as its starting point Wu Cheng'en's 16th century Chinese novel 'Journey to the West', one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature. It tells the story of the legendary pilgrimage to India undertaken by the monk Xuanzang returning to China with the central tracts of Buddhist philosophy. Many monks followed in Xuanzang's footsteps and their journeys were both literal and metaphorical, physical and spiritual.

Odedra and Shenyuan created Samsara with no spoken language in common. As both choreographers and performers, they stage this story of cultural exchange and shared philosophy in a desert landscape peopled with eerie human statues, created by set designer Tina Tzoka. Yaron Abulafia's lighting conjures a mythic world which the two dancers enter and explore. They eventually come together in a series of exquisitely-patterned virtuoso duets of challenge, reflection and exchange. Mongolian throat singing and traditional Chinese percussion are part of the powerful score, specially commissioned from Odedra's regular collaborator, Nicki Wells.

Samsara has been made possible by the generous support of the Bagri Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to promoting the arts and culture of Asia. Aiming to challenge, engage and inspire, it gives artists and experts from across Asia, or those inspired by the continent, wider visibility on the global stage and supports a diverse programme of film, visual arts, music, dance, literature, courses and lectures.

Aakash Odedra Company makes an earlier appearance in Edinburgh with Little Murmur, its collaboration with The Spark Arts for Children at Imaginate, the Edinburgh International Children's Festival, from 12 to 15 May. Little Murmur is an honest, funny and heartfelt journey about the trials and tribulations of living with dyslexia and seeing things differently, based on Aakash Odedra's own experiences.

An autumn 2022 tour of Samsara will be announced in May.

Little Murmur

Thursday 12 to Sunday 15 May
Imaginate, the Edinburgh International Children's Festival
The Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, Edinburgh EH8 9SU
Box Office: 0131 623 3001 / www.imaginate.org.uk/festival/whats-on/little-murmur
Tickets: £12
Age range: 7 to 14

Samsara

Thursday 18 August to Saturday 20 August
Edinburgh International Festival
The Royal Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street, Edinburgh EH3 9AX
Box Office and group bookings: / 0131 248 4848 / boxoffice@lyceum.org.uk
Tickets: £21 to £26, concessions available
www.lyceum.org.uk

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