Four Dance Companies to Perform at CAP UCLA This Fall

Four dance performances will come to UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) this fall, featuring artists and companies from Los Angeles and around the world. Akram Khan Company brings its final touring production, Thikra: Night of Remembering, to Royce Hall; Victoria Marks presents the world premiere of her thought-provoking A Deer Walks into a Dance at The Nimoy; Aymeric Hainaux and François Chaignaud stage Mirlitons, a marathon in-the-round vocal and dance duet at The Nimoy; and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan perform Blue Hour/Beckoning, a double bill of two foundational works by Artistic Director CHENG Tsung-lung at Royce Hall.

One of the foremost innovative dance companies in the world, Akram Khan Company, brings their final touring production, Thikra: Night of Remembering, to Royce Hall on October 10, 2026 at 8 pm. Hailed as “showing off Khan's gift for spellbinding movement" by The Independent, this captivating work explores connections across time, place, and generations. Imagined as an annual gathering, a tribe of women come together for one night only to awaken the spirit of those who came before them. Through ceremony and shared remembrance, they transcend time, uniting the past and present in a profound act of renewal.

This expansive performance features an original score by Karnatik music virtuoso Aditya Prakash, sound design by Tony Award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry, lighting design by Zeynep Kepekli, dramaturgy by Blue Pieta, scenography and costume design by award-winning Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan, and an international cast of women performing contemporary and Bharatanatyam dance. 

Akram Khan Company was founded in 2000 by dancer and choreographer Akram Khan and arts manager Farooq Chaudhry. Inspired by Khan's training in the Indian classical dance form kathak and the hybrid movement language that emerged from his exploration of contemporary dance, the Company has built an international reputation through ambitious collaborations and productions that bring together diverse artistic disciplines. Its work ranges from kathak and contemporary dance solos to artist-to-artist collaborations and large-scale ensemble productions, with performances reaching audiences around the world.

A Deer Walks into a Dance, Alpert Award-winning choreographer Victoria Marks' new work exploring connection in a world of division, receives its world premiere at The Nimoy on October 16 & 17 at 8 pm. Using movement, text, and the deconstruction of a joke, Marks and four performers — Rian Alcid, Maya Billig, Karen Chuang, and Aaron Mason — morph into multiplicities of identities, propelled by the beat of a live drummer. In the work, dancers are both predator and prey, simultaneously innocent and also accountable. 

Marks is a Guggenheim and Rauschenberg Fellow, and Fulbright Distinguished Scholar. Her work, made for the stage and film, migrates between choreo-portraits and action conversations for individuals who don't identify as dancers (veterans, dads, moms, sorority and fraternity students), and dances for and with dancers that fuel Marks' inquiries into movement. Marks is a professor in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance and Chair of UCLA's Interdepartmental program in Disability Studies.

On October 23 & 24 at 8 pm at The Nimoy musician Aymeric Hainaux and choreographer François Chaignaud perform their unrelenting beatbox and percussion duel Mirlitons. Set on an intimate stage reminiscent of an arena, the work finds Hainaux and Chaignaud confronting each other with their respective forms. Voices and bodies are amplified by microphones, loudspeakers, risers, bells and shoes in this rivalry of song and dance. Both in sound and movement, Mirlitons places rhythm at the forefront.

Initially from a visual arts background, Aymeric Hainaux is now committed to a highly personal approach to human beatbox. He creates machine sounds as precise as the famous Roland TR909, and his unparalleled technique makes him one of the leading artists in this field. A graduate of the CNSMDP in 2003, François Chaignaud has collaborated with several choreographers and created performances in which dance and singing unite at the crossroads of myriad inspirations. His curiosity for history has driven him to initiate various collaborations, particularly with artists Marie-Caroline Hominal (Duchesses, 2009), and Théo Mercier (Radio Vinci Park, 2016).

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan presents a double bill of two foundational works by Artistic Director CHENG Tsung-lung at Royce Hall on November 21 at 8pm. Together, the two works mark a shift in CHENG's artistry, from quiet self-reflection to movement inspired by Taiwanese temple processions. With Blue Hour, CHENG explores the liminal experience of day blurring into night with a haunting meditation on solitude. The internationally acclaimed Beckoning closes the evening.

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