THE HANGOVER REPORT – Akram Khan’s JUNGLE BOOK REIMAGNED brings articulate physicality and apocalyptic reckoning to Rudyard Kipling’s tales

Lincoln Center presents Akram Khan’s “Jungle Book Reimagined” at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center (photo by Richard Termine).

This week for three performances only at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Akram Khan presents his dark version of Rudyard Killing’s The Jungle Book. Indeed, the choreographer’s interpretation is entitled Jungle Book Reimagined, and it’s exactly that. Khan’s grim take on the adventures of a child — now a refugee in a collapsing world — with a host of animals in the wild gives the underlying material an apocalyptic reckoning overlay (serious themes touched upon include climate change, man’s inherent destructiveness, etc.), at times having more in common with the Planet of the Apes franchise than it does Kipling’s collection of family friendly stories.

Set to a stylish recorded mix of dialogue and an evocative original score by composer Jocelyn Pook, Khan’s choreographic reimagining strives to be dance theater in the truest sense, and as a cautionary tale, it largely succeeds. Permeating the piece is an articulate physicality that uncannily syncs with the soundscape’s shards of dialogue. This gives the overall staging a coiled, deliberately-paced quality; only occasionally does the company let loose and blossom into full on pure dance. Although some may feel short changed by this, the approach gives the storytelling tension, probably appropriate for an interpretation this brooding. The visual design is striking — particularly the the lighting and video projections (the soulful animation by Adam Smith is exquisitely rendered) — and integral to moving the narrative along as much as Khan’s choreography.

The ten dancers employed in Jungle Book Reimagined are magnificent, each of them acquitted to and trained beautifully in Khan’s distinctly rythmic and sweepingly gestural style, a seductive combination of traditional South Asian folk dance and contemporary dance. Sans any semblance of animal costumes (Cats or The Lion King, this isn’t), they embody a menagerie of animals — namely wolves, tigers, bears, and monkeys — purely through vocabularies of movement alone. Even if the portrayals register as more predatory than cuddly, the dancing throughout was grounded, instinctual, and altogether breathtaking.

RECOMMENDED

AKRAM KHAN’S JUNGLE BOOK REIMAGINED
Dance
Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center
2 hours, 10 minutes
Through November 18

Categories: Dance

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