Akram Khan is famed for fusing a north Indian dancing style called kathak with contemporary styles By Diana Freundl STAFF REPORTER Friday, Sep 17, 2004,Page 13 A young woman discovers she cannot bear children, so she prays to God asking for help. A few days later she finds a packet of seeds, which she plants and cares for, watching over them as they grow. As time passes she is still without child and so she prays once again, this time asking why she has been forsaken. In response she is reminded of the seeds she found and how she helped them mature into full-grown trees. The trees, she is told are her children and she has cared for them as a mother would a child. This is the condensed version of Akram Khans latest dance production, Ma. It is an integration of dance, text and live music, in which Akram Khan and his company explore issues centered on humanitys relationship to the earth. The show is so popular that it is booked solid in venues around the world for the next two years. Audience members in Taiwan, however have a small window of opportunity to catch the dance piece when it is performed at the Novel Hall in Taipei beginning this Thursday. The London-born, Bangladeshi dancer Akram Khan is renowned in the dance world for his unique fusing of contemporary movement with the north Indian style of classical dance known as kathak. Khan launched his own company in 2000, having studied kathak since he was a child. He said it wasnt until university that he encountered contemporary dance. When he saw his first performance it, "opened up many artistic doors," said Khan in a telephone interview from his home in London. "I was shocked in a positive way. I was 21 and had never seen contemporary dance before. When I saw my first performance I came to realize how many artistic forms there were and it was a big turning point for me." Kathak, which is Sanskrit for storytelling, originated as a Hindu ritual performed in Indias temples. Over time with Persian and Muslim influences, the dance form was adopted as a type of courtly entertainment. While many of the movements in Khans work reflect his years of kathak training, his exposure to modern dance eventually led to a new form, or "language," as he prefers to call it. Often described in media as "contemporary kathak," Khan said he disliked this label. "I prefer not to use that word [contemporary kathak]. What I do is a new language that comes from confusion -- confusion my body experienced while absorbing different languages of dance." He may not agree with the critics description of his dance style but their response to his shows has been highly favorable. The troupes first full-length production, Kaash, received plaudits around the world and earned the 30-year-old choreographer numerous awards, including Best Modern Choreography by the Dance Critics Circle (2003) and Most Promising Newcomer in Dance (2004) from the International Movimentos Tanzpreis in Berlin. He is also the first non-musician to become an associate artist at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The Akram Khan Company brings together performers from many diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The fact that they are from different countries however, is not, as it is often portrayed, a conscious decision on the part of Khan to create a multicultural troupe. "That doesnt interest me, what interests me is the people wherever theyre from. I always look at the artist first and they [the company] just happen to be from different backgrounds," he said. The dancers are all trained in contemporary dance and they learn kathak from Khan as well as a colleague of his. Equally integral to the latest production is the combination of musical talent -- including a Pakistani classical Sufi vocalist, a South Indian percussionist and a British cellist -- who will provide live music on stage along with recorded music by the Brussels-based Ictus Ensemble. Ma, which refers to both<