Premiere: 16 September 2010, Curve Theatre, Leicester
Duration: 70 minutes, no interval

Vertical Road is Akram Khan's latest contemporary ensemble work. Khan has assembled a cast of very special performers from across Asia, Europe and the Middle East. With a specially commissioned score by long-term collaborator composer, Nitin Sawhney, Vertical Road draws inspiration from the Sufi tradition and the Persian poet and philosopher Rumi. Exploring man's earthly nature, his rituals and the consequences of human actions, Vertical Road becomes a meditation on the journey from gravity to grace.

'I died from minerality and became vegetable;
And from vegetativeness I died and became animal.
I died from animality and became man.
Then why fear disappearance through death?
Next time I shall die
Bringing forth wings and feathers like angels;
After that, soaring higher than angels -
What you cannot imagine,
I shall be that.'  (Rumi)

Artistic Director/Choreographer - Akram Khan
Composer - Nitin Sawhney
Lighting Designer - Jesper Kongshaug
Costume Designer - Kimie Nakano

Producer - Farooq Chaudhry
Technical Director - Fabiana Piccioli
Set conceived by - Akram Khan, Kimie Nakano, Jesper Kongshaug

Material devised and performed by
Salah El Brogy
Yen-Ching Lin
Andrej Petrovic
Elias Lazaridis
Sung Hoon Kim
Sade Alleyne
Rudi Cole
Pauline De Laet

(previous dancers: Paul Zivkovich, Young Jin Kim, Konstandina Efthymiadou, Ahmed Khemis, Eulalia Ayguade Farro)

Dramaturge - Ruth Little
Researcher - Jess Gormley
Rehearsal Director - Andrej Petrovic
Technical Coordinator - Richard Fagan
Sound Engineer - Marcus Hyde
Stage Manager - Gillian Tan
(previous technicians: Julia Wills, Alex Castro, Lucy Record, Peter Swikker, Anne-Marie Bigby)
Tour Manager - Arthur Laurent

Co-produced by ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage), Curve Theatre Leicester, Sadler’s Wells London, Theatre de la Ville Paris, National Arts Centre Ottawa, Mercat de les Flors Barcelona

Produced during residencies at Curve Theatre, Leicester and DanceEast, Ipswich

Sponsored by COLAS