Biography

Akram Hossain Khan, MBE
English dancer and choreographer

Akram Hossain Khan (July 29, 1974) is an English dancer of Bangladeshi descent. Born in Wimbledon, London, England into a family from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Kahn began dancing and trained in the classical South Asian dance form of Kathak at the age of seven. He studied with Sri Pratap Pawar, later becoming his disciple. He began his stage career at the age of 13, when he was cast in Peter Brook's Shakespeare Company production of The Mahabharata, touring the world between 1987 and 1989 and appearing in the televised version of the play broadcast in 1988.
Following later studies in Contemporary Dance at De Montfort University and Performing Arts at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and a period working with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Brussels based X-Group project, he began presenting solo performances of his work in the 1990s. In August 2000, he launched Akram Khan Company. His first full-length work Kaash, a collaboration with Anish Kapoor and Nitin Sawhney, was performed at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002. As choreographer-in-residence and later associate artist at the Southbank Centre, he presented a recital with Pandit Birju Maharaj and Sri Pratap Pawar; and A God of Small Tales, a piece for mature women for which he collaborated with writer Hanif Kureishi. In 2005, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours for his services to dance.