Akrahm Khan's RUSH delves into the ideas of free falling and paragliding by using a mixture of Katak and contemporary dance and exploring extremes of speed and space.
The piece opens with three dancers all dressed in black standing in a triangle formation. They are all quite far apart from one another, giving them more than enough room to perform the strong, sharp, powerful upper body movements traditional to the Katak style. The stage is black with a black back drop and the lighting is quite dim. The plainness of the costumes, lighting and set allow the audience to really focus on the dancers and their movements and not get distracted by pretty patterns or coloured lights. It also makes the dance more intense. The music is also very minimalistic, almost giving it a slightly sinister feel.
The dancers start off facing the front with their knees bent, feet in parallel and a downwards focus. The dancer in stage left begins by whipping his arms back like propellers and then bending down again. The dancer centre stage repeats this, then stage left again, then centre again and then finally the dancer on stage right. These movements are very slow, as if the aeroplane is just starting up. Suddenly their movements become faster and more complicated, as if the plane is taking off and the adrenaline is starting to pump into the sky divers. Each dancer has a quick burst of movement and then goes back to the starting position. Although they are each doing similar movements, none of the dancers are doing the same thing at the same time which makes it look quite chaotic but also creates interesting visual rhythms. All of their movements are on the spot, representing how claustrophobic and restricted sky divers can feel when they are in the aeroplane before a jump.
About 40 seconds into the dance they each end up in the same position with their arms above their head, palms flat facing out whilst twisting their torso and head slightly to stage left. This is held still and contrasts with the fast movements we just saw. This could be the calm before the storm, the sky diver preparing themselves before they jump. They begin moving in canon but this time slower than before. They then repeat the whipping arm movements again but this time in unison, as if they are all pieces of the sky diver's mind which was racing before but now is together and prepared. They then glide their arms very slowly and hold them out, rigid towards stage left. They hold this moment of stillness for such a long time that I actually had to check that I hadn't accidentally paused the video or my computer had froze. This represented the final few seconds of calm before the sky diver jumps.
Suddenly they all spring into action, turning and rolling faster than before and using more of their space. They are all now in unison which makes it look more effective to the audience. This extremeness of speed represents the initial sensation of falling from the plane. They begin moving differently again, bringing the chaotic atmosphere from the beginning back again but this time on a higher level as they are all now using more of the space and using their legs as well as their upper bodies. This dance features a strong use of repetition as some of the same movements from the beginning, such as the arms above the head, are used again throughout the piece, showing Khan's use of splicing and recycling.
The movements are shared equally between all three dancers, showing that no one character has more or less power or significance than the other. They are all representing the same person and the same feelings and repeat the same movements but at different times. There is never any contact between them which creates a formal relationship between this trio and perhaps symbolizes how they are all supposed to be the same thing/character.
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