Sydney Opera House

Juliette Binoche was born in Paris to a movie-director father and an actress mother. She studied drama at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris and at the age of 18 she obtained a small role in the independent film Liberty Belle.

Binoche was 24 when she received her first big break with a role in Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

In 1992, she starred opposite Jeremy Irons in Louis Malle's Damage. In the same year, she appeared with future English Patient co-star Ralph Fiennes in a new film version of Wuthering Heights, and followed that with the lead role in Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours Blue.

In 1996 Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The English Patient. In 2000, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role opposite Johnny Depp in Chocolat, based on the novel by Joanne Harris.

Akram Khan was born in London to Bengali parents. His mother encouraged him to start dancing in the Kathak tradition at the age of seven. He trained at The Academy of Indian Dance, under the tutelage of world-renowned guru Sri Pratap Pawar. He then went on to study contemporary dance at De Montfort University and later at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, where he recorded the highest mark ever for his Performing Arts degree.

As a teenager Akram Khan performed all around the world, working with Pandit Ravi Shankar in The Jungle Book, and later in Mahabharata directed by Peter Brook.

Following his graduation, he worked with Jonathan Burrows and won a coveted place on the X-Group project organised by PARTS, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Brussels based school.

In August 2000 at the age of 25, he launched his own company, which has appeared at some of the most important contemporary dance festivals around the world.

Akram Khan was until April 2005 Associate Artist at London's South Bank Centre, the first non-musician to be afforded this status. Akram Khan is currently an Associated Artist at Sadlers Wells.