Ethic of care built into family-friendly dance production Chotto Desh’s every gesture

Adapted from Akram Khan’s Desh, this work tells the story of a young man searching for his place in the world. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Akram Khan Company (UK)Singtel Waterfront Theatre at EsplanadeMarch 21, 7.30pm

Chotto Desh, meaning “Little Homeland” in Bengali, is the family-friendly adaptation of Akram Khan’s stage show Desh (2011), the autobiographical solo in which the British contemporary dancer and choreographer explored identity at the crossing point of cultures, political struggle and belonging.

Directed by Sue Buckmaster of London theatre company Theatre-Rites and having premiered in 2023, this version turns its focus more squarely towards childhood.

It keeps sight of pain, dislocation and conflict without flattening them or lapsing into the kind of emotional overstatement that often afflicts work made for younger audiences.

At its centre is Nico Ricchini, an irresistibly animating presence. He captures the volatility of childhood with tremendous physical intelligence. Wonder, glee and sudden petulance ripple across him as though he really were a strong-willed three-year-old testing the limits of his world.

Chotto Desh asks much of its audiences’ imagination, and wisely trusts them with that task. Production company YeastCulture’s animations, Ricchini’s deft pantomime and a staging built as much on suggestion as statement open up a generous space for children and adults alike to enter the story for themselves.