Akademi's Escapade took the South Bank Centre by storm on 1 and 2 August 2003. Some said the production exceeded the enormously successful Coming of Age, which began Akademi's special relationship with the architecture of this site three years ago. What it matched in ambition and perhaps scale, Akademi certainly surpassed in daring with its latest spectacle.

With a cast of performers running to well over one hundred, an impressively large production team, and vast spaces teeming with carnival punks, dancers, percussionists and, at the end of it all, fireworks, Escapade couldn't help but live up to its name.

Showcasing the often 'invisible' community and education work that has earned Akademi its respected reputation, Escapade was an exuberant tribute to the democratic resilience of pop culture in the UK. Urban, British, South Asian cool: for two nights, Bollywood kitsch went art-house on London's South Bank with a triumphant, bootylicious bang.

A near kiss: the eyes look, but the lips don't touch. This exact moment of aching suspense, a staple of many Bollywood films, drives the drama of Escapade, an open-air extravaganza. Produced by south Asian dance organisation Akademi, conceived by its director Mira Kaushik and directed by Keith Khan, Escapade involves 10 choreographers and more than 100 performers from a diverse range of professional, community and education groups. It deliriously captures the spark of a London-based, Asian-influenced cultural vibrancy.

Escapade opens not with an archetypal pair of romantic leads, but with 12 couples, of both genders, each enacting their own scenario of desire, rebuttal or conciliation. But, as in the best musical films, the narrative is simply a pretext for the numbers, and the drama blossoms into spectacle. Dressed in neon colours, wigged, jewelled, booted and slippered, performers take over the concrete walkways as loudspeakers blare a heady mix of Hindi film songs, R&B, rock and club beats above the throng of spectators. Line-dancing Bollywood babes flash seductive glances from a balcony, while a posse of punk women get down to an urban vibe in the underpass below. Leggy ballet types flail their extendible limbs, school kids act out film-star fantasies, skateboarders surf the ramps, and an open-topped red bus laden with "Indian tourists" chugs into the fray.

The action culminates at the back of the building, the wall becoming a giant screen showing two lovers about to kiss. They are censored by a jump-cut to an Indian family, whose lightly comic struggles for control of the video remote send the projection into dizzying rewinds, playbacks and channel-hops. Meanwhile, the live performers spill out onto balconies and podiums: Indian Chhau dancers are kitted in bandanas and low-slung shorts and the astonishing Anand Kumar rolls up for a riveting mix of film dance, Kathak and voguing.

The question on everyone's lips is: do the lovers finally get to kiss? After countless near-misses, they do, igniting exuberant bopping as fireworks explode triumphantly from the roof.

© Sanjoy Roy, The Guardian, 7 August 2003

VIEW A VIDEO OF THE PRODUCTION



A TWO PART JOURNEY

escapade: 'an incident involving daring and adventure'
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 2003

A spectacular outdoor performance, inspired by London's vibrancy, with dance, film, visuals, club culture and skateboarding. A two part, 360-degree experience and a kaleidoscope of sight and sound. 150 dancers perform on multiple sites, deconstructed Bollywood rhythms fill the air and a top London DJ mixes the closing sounds.

Part One
The promenade starts on the ground level eastside (Hayward Gallery side) Royal Festival Hall. Weave between different dance encounters bathed in light and projection. (approx. 45 mins)

Part Two
Gather in Festival Square on Belvedere Road for a grand finale. Our twisted multiple narrative is unravelled. (approx. 30 mins)

FREE workshops
Saturday 2 August, 2003.
For those who want to sharpen their moves a range of Bollywood style workshops will be on offer throughout the day on the Royal Festival Hall Ballroom Floor.

Amongst the concrete and history of the Royal Festival Hall, two characters are about to kiss. Fate, culture, rejection - a moment of anticipation remains unresolved and unanswered...

As we channel-hop through the site, we see multiple versions of what might have been. Fragments are played and replayed in film, dance, visuals and projection. Escapade is London seen through Indian eyes and that of popular Indian cinema.

Live action merges seamlessly with projection and a lush, rhythmic, re-mixed soundtrack featuring the music of Sandeep Chowta. The South Bank's modernist architecture becomes a huge film screen. Spaces around the Royal Festival Hall are transformed and filled with surprising and audacious characters, as the mass of performers lead the audience to the conclusion of the story.

Keith Khan, Artistic Director/Designer

Escapade Poster PDF » (983 kb)
Escapade Leaflet PDF » (1,039 kb)



CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Artistic Director/Designer: Keith Khan
Movement Director/Choreographer: Dan O'Neill
Associate Movement Director/Choreographer: Gauri Sharma Tripathi
Film Maker: Mark Murphy
Lighting Designer: Simon Corder
Composer: Sandeep Chowta
Sound Designer: Andy Pink
Dramaturg: Rajan Khosa
Choreographers: Henri Oguike, Mavin Khoo, Satish Shah, Chix Chandaria, Joan Pires, Sujata Banerjee & Mita Banerjee
Executive Producer: Mira Kaushik
Producer: Suzanne Walker
Production Manager: Simon Byford

Production
Escapade was produced by Akademi's Community Education Department in association with the South Bank Centre.

Funding
Escapade was funded by the European Union Social Fund, Arts Council England, Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Sponsors
Escapade was sponsored by Sony Entertainment Television Asia.

Collaborations
Escapade was created in collaboration with Weekend Arts College, Barnet College, Bull Arts Centre, Lilian Bayliss Over 60's Performance Group, S.A.I.D., A.N.K.H., F.P.A. and The Chau Dancers.

Photography Credits
Richard Haughton, Keith Khan, Mark Murphy, Ali Zaidi.

Participants
Kamal Ackarie, Lisa Alexander, Lucinda Ali, Heenal Amin, Seema Anand, Varun Anand, Scott Arnold, Celia Ashbolt, Denise Assanah, Lee Baker, Mita Banerjee, Sujata Banerjee, Janki Baraj, Georgina Barclay, Sandie Barwick, Anjali Bhimjyari, Danielle Birkin, Sanjoy Bhunia, Blitz Vision, Martin Bowes, Joyce Brown, Hannah Bruce, Maz Bryden, Robin Brunson, Dan Burn-Forti, Ben Byford, Simon Byford, Nuno Campos, Gwynna Ceane, Aanal Chandaria, Chix Chandaria, Roswitha Chesher, Sandeep Chowta, Kalithasan Chandrasegaram, Greg Clarke, Richard Coldman, Alison Collins, Simon Corder, Julia Carruthers, Felix Darteh, Arun Das, Murali K Das, Ram Chandra Das, Dhruti Dattani, Ayisha Davis, Marguerite de Bourgoing, Sean de Sparengo, The Dhol Academy, Sophia Dick-Oyelami, Sheila Dickie, Haydn Dixon, Adam Doran, Leroy Dias Dos Santos, Dovetail, Kemi Durosinmi, Charlotte Eatock, Rick Eggleton, Odilia Egyiawan, Heather Elkin, Donald Elliott, Rachel Elliott, Frauke Fequardt, Betsy Field, Julie Flavell, Sybil Fox, Nicola Froud, Janki Gadia, Sonal Gadia, Sadie Galindez, Rhys Gayle, Desi Georgiou, Magdalen Gorringe, John Gray, Celia Greenwood, Doris Griggs, Bandish Gutka, Maureen Hamilton-Hill, Saju Hari, Seeta Haria, Rachel Harris, Headline Security, Liz Healy, Kit Heatley, Symone Heward-Mills, Aimee Hewitt, Gladys Hillman, Richard Hinds, Sam Hopkins, Sam Hunter, Julian Ibbitson, Chauntelle Ingarfield, Elena James, Pete Jeffries, Lyneah Johnson, Maria Johnson, Martha Oakes PR, Naomi Johnson, LaCharne Jolly, Shirley Jordorson, Allan Kabeja, Ethan Kaplan, Sweetie Kapoor, Mira Kaushik, Gulnihal Kazim, Laura Kendal, Keith Khan, Amina Khayam, Mavin Khoo, Rajan Khosa, Roopa Kukadia, Anand Kumar, Trishna Kumari, Radhika Lakhan, Andrew Lang, LEL, Yvonne Levy, Linda Lewcock, Natalee Lewis-McLeod, Clare Maguire, Mohini Makwana, Tanja Mangalamayagam, Neil Marsh, Andrea McCurdy, Elsie McGarry, Geoff McGarry, Azaria McKenzie, Tim McKeough, Michela Meazza, Richard Melville, Dalya Moaso, Kathryn Mott, Jill Murch, Andy Murrell, Katie Murphy, Mark Murphy, Sandip Kumar Nag, Kim Najair, Anne Marie Neblett, Jenny O'Connell, Henri Oguike, Dan O'Neill, Jodie Oware, Maitreyee Pahari, Natalie Parchment, Bijal Patel, Hima Patel, Natasha Patel, Neha Patel, Payal Patel, Seema Patel, Sivani Patel, Rajiv Pattani, Andy Pink, Joan Pires, Eve Pearce, Lindsay Powell, Hilary Preston, Prompt Side, David Rackham, Ekta Raichura, Priya Raichura, John Rhodes, Richard Nowell Sound Services, Finn Ros, Stephanie Samiah, Andy Scorgie, Munisha Sevani, Aneesha Shah, Kalyani Mohan Shah, Rakhi Shah, Satish Shah, Sheena Sheth, Luke Silavwe, Abigail Strachan, Tara Stroud, Kamilah Sylvesre, Chris Taylor, Karsten Tinapp, Rob Tory, Gauri Sharma Tripathi, Tarini Tripathi, Dexter Tullet, Sajan Uddin, Phalguni Upadhyaya, Pooja Upadhyaya, VLPS Lighting Services, Suzanne Walker, Nathan Wharton, Jeanette White, Krystle Williams, Cath Willmore, Emily Wilson, Susan Woods, Dewi Wynne, Ali Zaidi and Pam Zinkin.

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