Akram Khan Company - Thikra: Night of Remembering

About

Past and present converge in a journey through tradition, honouring our ancestors in Akram Khan Company’s final touring production.

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.

Khan draws profound inspiration from diverse cultures that engage in these sacred practices across the globe. With scenography and costume design by award-winning Saudi visual artist Manal AlDowayan, the piece explores the echoes of a colonised past.

Featuring an original score by Aditya Prakash (ROOM-i-Nation, 2025), sound design by Gareth Fry, lighting design by Zeynep Kepekli, dramaturgy by Blue Pieta, with an all-female international cast of Contemporary and Bharatanatyam dancers, Thikra weaves a narrative that is at once universal and deeply personal.

Together, these creative voices invite us to reflect on our own heritage and the rituals that have shaped our shared humanity.

Akram Khan - Director/Choreographer

Akram Khan is one of the most celebrated and respected dance artists of today. In 25 years, he has created a body of work that has contributed significantly to the arts in the UK and abroad. His reputation has been built on the success of imaginative, highly accessible and relevant productions such as GIGENIS: the generation of the Earth, Jungle Book Reimagined and Outwitting the Devil

Manal AlDowayan - Visual Director / Costume and Scenography
Embracing diverse media, Manal AlDowayan’s work encompasses black and white photography, sculpture, video, sound, neon and large-scale participatory installations. Her artistic practice revolves around themes of invisibility, active forgetting, archives, and collective memory, with a large focus on the status of women and their representation. Manal holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art Practice in Public Spheres from the Royal College of Art, London and her works can be found in the collections of the British Museum, London; Centre Pompidou collection in Paris and the Guggenheim Collection in New York

Aditya Prakash - Composer & Soundscape Designer

Aditya Prakash, an award-winning singer and composer known for his powerful and expressive voice, is one of the foremost young practitioners of Carnatic music. Aditya’s current focus in composition is pushing boundaries within the classical tradition. In his latest solo album, ISOLASHUN, he explores the weight of privilege and the boundaries of tradition in an entirely new creative form. He is currently composing the music for three evening-length dance productions by Akram Khan as well as touring his own solo gig-theatre production ROOM-i-Nation (Brighton Festival 2025), which explores themes of identity, migration and tradition.

Supported by Dishoom Permit Room

Commissioned by Wadi AlFann, Valley of the Arts, AlUla

Primary Co-producing Partner Bagri Foundation