Dancer and choreographer Akram Khan is one of the UK's most celebrated performers. In this episode of Direct Talk he calls for urgent action to save the performing arts, an industry which has been devastated by the country's enforced lockdowns. 

Akram Khan - Dancing Through a Pandemic was produced by In Focus Productions for NHK World's Direct Talk. 

In Focus Productions' films for Direct Talk have profiled leading thinkers from the fields of international diplomacy, economics, climate change and medicine, to humanitarian causes, science, literature and fashion. 

Past interviewees include: Designer Thomas Heatherwick, Mountaineer Chris Bonington, Rescue coordinator Nick Romaniuk, author Elif Shafak, British Museum director Hartwig Fischer, EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager, OECD General Secretary Angel Gurría, and Christiana Figueres, former UN Climate Change envoy.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/directtalk/

Our Direct Talk films are produced and directed by Mark Galloway, Peter Gordon, Paul Mitchell, Teresa Cherfas and Alison Rooper.