LONDON – Minutes…hours…days… weeks… all the familiar markers of time quietly vanish in the vast, stark expanse of the desert, where past and present drift together in the thin night air. It is impossible not to be swept up in the stories told and retold under the stars in such a place. Zeynep Kepekli certainly was! And the experience inspired her when creating an enchanting lighting design for Thikra: Night of Remembering.

Kepekli spent time in the Saudi Arabian desert when preparing her design for this compelling production created by multi-award-winning choreographer Akram Khan and Wadi AlFann, in collaboration with artist Manal AlDowayan, and featuring an original score by Aditya Prakash.

“This piece was originally made in the desert,” said Kepekli, noting that the premiere took place outdoors on a starry night at Wadi Al Fann in Saudi Arabia against the dramatic cliffs of a desert canyon.

“On our first research trip to AlUla, we all met in the desert at 4am, and stayed there for a few hours until the sun came up,” she recalled. “We wanted to see the darkness and the changing light as sunrise approached. We all sat around and listened to the harrowing stories of Arabic woman. The sisters, the daughters, the mothers, the goddesses. It felt like all the poems folded into that sunrise at that moment. It was intoxicating and humbling and truly put me in the right frame of mind

“To be able to plan, get ideas and inspiration, I had several further trips to Saudi Arabia,” continued Kepekli. “Part of my practice is photography and that really helped me to capture the light in a slightly tangible way. Landscape over there is magical, the dunes, the rocks, and the ever changing light was truly inspiring. I sort of knew then how I would like to approach this piece both in outdoor and indoor versions.”

Kepekli’s nuanced lighting is creating a transcendent sense of the ebb and flow of time at the indoor version of Thikra: Night of Remembering as it tours throughout Europe. Helping her convey this beguiling atmosphere is a collection of 32 CHAUVET Professional fixtures, evenly divided between Maverick Storm 2 Profiles and Rogue R3 Washes.

Kepekli described her design vision this way: “Without giving too much away, this piece has 14 female dancers from all over the world, and it’s about tribe, tradition and rebellion. As the piece is telling a story, it follows a narrative — and so does my lighting. At the very beginning of the process, I knew I wanted to start the show and end it the same way. That was probably the only definitive thing in my mind. So the piece starts with the 5k revealing the mountain and ends with it, taking everything away with it. And as the piece evolves and story gets revealed, lights also follow that journey.”

Darkness also played a role in Kepekli’s design. “For me, It all starts with the darkness. I’m a big fan of less is more, especially in this piece,” she explained. “We see those cluster of women and what I wanted was to see the shape but not the details. Almost like, when you are looking at it, you don’t know what it is that you are looking at. And to be able to achieve that mystery, I needed a great deal of darkness.”

Kepekli spent much of her time in the rehearsal room drawing and painting, to ensure that her lighting flowed seamlessly with the choreography Her design was so in step with the dancers that it seemed to be a part of them, wrapping itself around them as they gracefully blended Bharatanatyam and contemporary movements in a stunning variety of ways to convey hope and despair; joy and sorrow; along with myriad other emotions.

The shadows and light created with her Rogue and Maverick fixtures helped her achieve this effect. “This is a very symmetrical rig,” she remarked. “There is nothing on the ground apart from a 5k at the back. In this piece, the Rogues are the work horse – they are doing all the heavy lifting. All those light and dark shadow plays are created with them. At some point in the piece, they are going from 0-to-3 percent in just over 45 seconds. That was very important for me. As for the Mavericks, they are used when highlight and definition on dancers is needed and they worked really well.”

Of course, fixtures tell only part of the story of executing an inspired lighting design. Kepekli is quick to credit her programmer on the indoor tour, Imogen Clarke, with bringing her vision to life.

“Her eye, and understanding of how I want to see things, along with her detailed work is amazing,” said Kepekli, adding that her collaborator was instrumental in helping her “achieve, what I want to achieve” for Thikra: Night of Remembering. In the end, that “achievement” was a design that transcended time, space, and cultures to take audiences to a better place.