★★★★
“Energetic storytelling. Here is a bona fide great piece of dance, with resonances that go deep beneath its surface moves.”
– The Stage 

★★★★
“Using a mixture of styles and storytelling, Khan demystifies the art of dance. Vibrant and vivid.”
– The List

“A beguiling mix of dance and mime.”
– The New York Times

“A real delight. It mixes reality and mythology to explore rebellion, identity and homeland.”
– The Guardian

The acclaimed Akram Khan Company returns to Singapore with its much-loved, family-friendly production Chotto Desh. Adapted in 2015 by Theatre-Rites director Sue Buckmaster from Akram Khan’s Olivier Award-winning and critically acclaimed solo DESH, this heart-warming work tells the story of a young man searching for his place in the world.

Chotto Desh, meaning “small homeland”, draws on Khan’s unique quality of cross-cultural storytelling, creating a compelling tale of a boy’s dreams and memories from Britain to Bangladesh that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the modern world. Blending kathak and contemporary dance with an exquisite mix of spoken text, dreamlike animation, visuals and specially composed music, Chotto Desh is an enchanting and poignant dance-theatre experience for the young and young-at-heart to enjoy together.

Artistic Team & Credits

DESH Artistic Direction and Original Choreography: Akram Khan
Chotto Desh Direction and Adaptation: Sue Buckmaster (Theatre-Rites)
Music Composition: Jocelyn Pook
Lighting Design: Guy Hoare
Stories imagined by: Karthika Naïr and Akram Khan
The grandmother’s fable in Chotto Desh is taken from the book The Honey Hunter
Written by: Karthika Naïr, Sue Buckmaster and Akram Khan
Assistant Choreographer: Jose Agudo
Rehearsal Directors: Amy Butler
Dancer: Nico Ricchini
Grandmother’s voice: Leesa Gazi
Jui’s voice: Sreya Andrisha Gazi
Executive Director: Isabel Tamen
Production Manager: Michael Cunningham
Tour Manager: Svitlana Bil
Stage Manager: Jessica Rice
Lighting Technician: Gerald McDermott 
Sound & Video: Matt Armstrong
Original Visual Design: Tim Yip
Original Visual Animation created by: YeastCulture
Painted Head Sequence devised by: Damien Jalet with Akram Khan
Bleeding Soles lyrics written by: Leesa Gazi
Singers: Melanie Pappenheim, Sohini Alam, Jocelyn Pook (voice/viola/piano), Tanja Tzarovska, Jeremy Schonfield

We gratefully acknowledge the artists who contributed to the original production of DESH by Akram Khan Company.

Co-produced by the MAC, Belfast in 2023.

Originally co-commissioned by MOKO Dance, Akram Khan Company, Sadler’s Wells London, DanceEast, Théâtre de la Ville Paris, Mercat de les Flors Barcelona, Biennale de la danse de Lyon 2016 and Stratford Circus Arts Centre.