Sadler’s Wells, 23 November 2024
A Ballet For Mothers
I have danced and watched ballet all my life and never attended an Indian classical dance. That is inexcusable in London, especially growing up so close to Southall, so I thank blessed master choreographer Akram Khan for finally delivering it to Sadlers Wells. I try to attend everything Akram creates and today was my chance to again watch his breathtaking movement, this time as the son in Gigenis. A lifetime’s drama was delivered in just one hour. It was a full house and everyone around me was on their feet applauding, many of us in tears.
‘The generation of the Earth’ is the subtitle to the piece, and this understates its powerful portrayal of a mother’s truth – one day daughter, then wife and finally mother. That focus was poignant for me, with my mother’s funeral only yesterday, writing and delivering the epilogue she never got to write. The mother in Gigenis writes her life on the boards of the stage, and we see it lived through different ages of dancers. She is the mother of sons, as am I, and she struggles with external violence and their internal anger, exactly like mothers in 21st century England.
This is not a performance to watch on the screen. There is darkness and a thundering power to the drums, strings and chorus, all lining the wings. It has to be felt to be understood. The singing is without words, a primal cry that could be flamenco or echoing muezzin calls across the rooftops of Istanbul. The mother is dressed in green, rooted deep into the stage, strong and reaching, voluptuous with grace. We are immersed in the rhythm of her heart, hypnotised and transported into her home. Our eyes question the speed of pirouettes around the stage, the gentle sway of body and arms, whipping fingers even castanets could not match. Yet the story develops naturally, disguising time, so we are shocked when it ends and we have experienced so much.
Indian women are described as weak by Western media. In this ballet, the mother is the central pillar. She crowns her husband, then eldest son. She is vulnerable to violence, as are we all, but endures life after love after life after love, between which she is alone in her grief. Her final utterance is of once being a mother, in another time.
Akram says “When something is beautiful – that is truth”. Beauty is a purity and truth we recognise without question. Why have we never seen childbirth in a ballet and the battle of women trying to raise and protect their sons? Here is a story as if choreographed by a woman and for that I thank Akram on behalf of mothers.
Gigenis is now travelling the world, next stops Paris, NYC, DC.
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Tracey Chippendale-Gammell
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