Akashi Odedra’s mystic solo is touching, but hampered by its grand theatricality.
The Leicester-based Akashi Odedra Company ends its tour across England of the brand new solo work Songs of the Bulbul in Sadler’s Wells East. It’s a big moment for artistic director Odedra, who performs the work, coinciding with his appointment as a Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist before setting off with the piece for Venice’s Dance Biennale. If there was ever a moment to feel that one has ‘made it’, it’s certainly now. Though Songs of the Bulbul is primarily inspired by Sufic art, particularly its music and poetry, it is also a deeply personal work created in memory of Odedra’s late mother.
A bulbul, we learn, is a little songbird found in Persia known for its enchanting melodies.A voiceover details how in bygone times the innocent bird would be captured and have its eyes pulled out — to induce a sorrowful song of agony from the creature. It’s a dark fate, one that mirrors the life of an artist the voice tells us; singing their captive song and leaving their physical self on the stage.
The work was choreographed by Kathak master Rani Khanam. She opts for a more airborne, freer aesthetic than what the classical form is known for, typically grounded and upright. We see some balletic influence as Odedra flits about on tip-toes waving his white skirt. He leaps across the space and sweeps across the floor. He twitches his head like a curious songbird might.
The traditional elements brim with virtuosity. Odedra’s superhuman powers of articulation are astounding. Every joint and knuckle flows through various mudras (hand gestures), alluding to those all-important themes of liberty and containment in a far richer manner than the frequent bounding around does. There’s no doubt that he’s a technical wonder: he stamps out complex rhythms with ease and sails through those notorious turns — a trademark element of Kathak.
Odedra’s marvellous dancing is a highlight of the work, but occasionally gets dwarfed by large set pieces and a very cinematic score. Rushi Ranjal’s compositions are especially large-scale in this recording from the Manchester Camerata, sometimes overbearingly so.
The use of lightning tricks and illusion also only serves to cloud this vision of a celestial songbird’s fate. Some harmony can be found though when Odedra spins like a top among falling rose petals, the Qawwali music thumping like an unstoppable outpouring of spiritual devotion. When the grander elements subside, the Bulbul soars.