Introduction

Abstract

Akram Khan’s choreography for the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics is an exciting starting point for a book that analyses his choreographic oeuvre through the lens of new interculturalism. Haunting public memory with images of intergenerational legacy and hope in multi-ethnic communities, Abide with Me provides critical insights into how the personal and the political collide in Khan’s aesthetic. More importantly, however, if the Olympic Games has come to signify ‘globalism’s signature performance’, then performing and choreographing in its Opening Ceremony is symbolic of Khan’s seminal position in the contemporary British cultural milieu (Schechner, Performance Studies 292). As the first book-length study of Khan’s art this monograph is both timely and vital in critically examining the new interculturalism that drives Khan’s aesthetic, and a discussion of Abide with Me provides an accessible way into the heart of this discourse.