Khan, 38, is a second-generation Bangladeshi who grew up in southwest London. His work largely consists of variations on themes of place, belonging and identity. As a boy, he studied kathak, a traditional northern Indian dance with elaborate footwork which, he says, remains his true mother tongue. Later, as a Michael Jackson-worshipping teen, he was hired by Peter Brook to feature in his legendary adaptation of The Mahabharata, with which he toured the world for two years.

Khan went on to study contemporary dance in Britain and in Brussels with De Keersmaeker, and founded his Akram Khan Company at the dawn of the new century.

While some critics are irked by what they call his narcissism, others feel that Khan represents Diaspora art at its most exhilarating. He belongs to a generation of British-Asian artists that also include the writer Hanif Kureishi, the composer Nitin Sawhney and the sculptor Anish Kapoor (he has, incidentally, collaborated with all three), who manage to put their mixed heritage to great creative use, transmuting it into striking new languages of their own. Just don’t call it fusion – Khan abhors the word, preferring to describe what he does as carefully orchestrated “confusion”.

December Dance is a chance to see two of Khan’s more recent and successful works, which haven’t yet been on stage here. The brand new solo Desh (“homeland” in Bengali), which opens the festivities, is by general agreement his most personal opus to date – a searching epic that struggles to make sense of his country of origin (pictured). The other is the 2009 Confluence, a meditation on the passing of time that features heady tabla riffs by Nitin Sawhney.

Khan has personally handpicked the rest of the programme, which ranges from graceful demonstrations of kathak and bharata natyam to bold experiments from all over the world. Watch out for Dancing My Shiva, a brittle and strangely sensual homage to the Hindu god by Malaysian dancer Mavin Khoo; Play, a tender duet between Moroccan-Flemish Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and South-Indian beauty Shantala Shivalingappa that features oversized masks and live singing; and Dark Matter by young Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, which is at once swift, witty and strangely hieratic.

There will also be the obligatory talks and documentaries. The late Pina Bausch is the star of Wim Wenders’ stunning film homage Pina, which fully deserves to be seen on a big screen. And since no event devoted to Indian culture would be complete without at least a few bhangra beats, children and teens will be treated to a glitzy Bollywood ball hosted by the genuine, if Flanders-based, troupe Gori KaDance.

1-11 December

Across Bruges
www.decemberdance.be