Past Events

March 2011

Presentations in The Hague and Amsterdam of Choreographic Residency Works

The two choreographers from the Arab World selected for the Dancing on the Edge residencies at Korzo Theater in the Hague and Dansmakers Amsterdam gave showings of their works in March 2011. These residencies were within the framework of the J.M. Liverato project of the EU in collaboration with the Studio Emad Eddin Foundation in Cairo, and were supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation.

13 & 14 March: Mounir Saeed in the Hague and Amsterdam

Mounir Saeed, one of Egypt’s young talents, flew in early February directly from the demonstrations on Tahrir Square to the opening of the new Korzo Theater in the Hague. Shortly after his arrival he was asked to speak at the Balie during the ‘Art of Revolution’ evening- see clip. Mounir has studied and presented work at Studio Emad Edin in Cairo, Hivernales in Avignon, and elsewhere. Mounir will present in Holland his solo work in progress ‘The Other and Me’.

18,19 & 20 March: Khouloud Yassine in Amsterdam

Khouloud Yassine, based in Beirut, Lebanon is a dancer and choreographer. She worked for a number of years with Omar Rajeh and was a founding member of his Maqamat Theatre Dance in Beirut. Recently Ms. Yassine has performed both as an actress and a dancer, and has made a number of choreographies.
She presented her work in progress ‘Extra Time’ - a project which explores the characteristics of our body movement in a “post-war period and a post-exhaustion/post-alertness period, but mainly in a pre-downfall period".

April 2011

5 April Cineblend: Film, Social Media and the Revolutions in the Middle East

Cineblend - the monthly film program of SAVAN (Dutch Foundation for Audiovisual Anthropology)- took a look at the recent developments in the Middle East through the eyes of three filmmakers from the region. The evening was organized in cooperation with Dancing on the Edge and On File, an organization which acts as an intermediary for refugee writers and journalists in the Netherlands.
The focus of the evening was on the role of the unofficial media and the power and strength of (or sometimes lack thereof) media in the region. On a more personal level, the possible contribution of the guest filmmakers in the new Middle East was discussed.

The guests were:
Rosh Abdelfatah (Syria), who through Facebook was active in the Tunesian ‘Jasmin Revolution’ and who is making a film about the role of the social media in Syria.
Farshad Aria (Iran) who is just completing a film about the Green Revolution in her homeland.
Ahmed Kamal Jawad (Iraq) is making a film about the Baghdad Film School and worked on the controversial film www.gilgamesh.21.
The moderator of the evening is Naeeda Aurangzeb, the Pakistani journalist and presenter of the NTR discussion program ‘The Half Moon

Location: Soeterijn Café, Tropentheater, Linnaeusstraat 2 in Amsterdam

17 April Obscenitas: Discussion about perceptions of obscenity through the eyes of female Arab choreographers- debate, video-installation & more

Dance Works Rotterdam/André Gingras and Dancing on the Edge presented, in collaboration with Kosmopolis Rotterdam, a debate concerning perceptions of Obscenity.
The debate was in the framework of the ‘Obscenitas’ project where 3 female Arabic choreographers came to work with Dance Works Rotterdam/André Gingras in April and May on a new video-installation which will be premiered during the Dancing on the Edge Festival in 2011.
In the discussion, the choreographers Shaymaa Shoukry (Egypt), Khouloud Yassine (Lebanon), the film maker Oona Spengler, and artistic director of Dance Works, André Gingras, discussed perceptions of obscenity through the eyes of different artists. In addition to the debate, the first results of the choreographers Shoukry en Yassine were shown and a short dance workshop was given by one of them. Furthermore, the video-installation made by Gingras and Spengler in 2009 ‘Les Commerçants’ was shown.

Location: Dance Works Rotterdam/André Gingras, ’s-Gravendijkwal 58a, Rotterdam

21 & 22 April Presentation during the Arab Dance Platform in Beirut

Dancing on the Edge, together with its partners in the Dance Refl-Action project supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation, organized two public meetings during the Arab Dance Platform in Beirut. The first one concentrated on research about dance pedagogy in the region, and the other was a round-table discussion on current structures for training in contemporary dance in the Arab world.
Interim results of the project were presented, including progress reports on research papers and a report of the Symposium on Dance Pedagogy in Arabic Speaking Countries that the ATTC (Arab Theatre Training Center) organized in Bodrum, Turkey in July of 2010 in partnership with Dancing on the Edge and others. This Symposium brought together 28 individuals involved in dance pedagogy with the express aim to promote a reflective approach towards dance theories and practices amongst choreographers, dancers, dance teachers and dance researchers engaged in dance pedagogy in the Mediterranean Arabic-speaking countries.

May 2011

Exchange with University of Utrecht and Performing Studies International (PSi)

Dancing on the Edge contributed to the Performing Studies International (PSi) conference Camillo 2.0 and related events which took place in May 2011.
The conference and events were an initiative of Theatre Studies at Utrecht University and the Festival aan de Werf, in cooperation with the Faculty of Theatre at the Utrecht School for the Arts (HKU).
Dancing on the Edge contributed to a wider international view of the PSi by inviting a number of prominent people in the performing arts field in the Middle Eastern region to the Netherlands in order to take part. They are:
Dr. Farin Zahedi (Iran) – Professor at the University of Tehran in Iran, Faculty of Fine Arts, School of Drama & Music.
Adham Hafez (Egypt) - Founder and program director of HaRaKa, lecturer in performance theory at the American University in Cairo, director Cairography.
Dr. Neveen Allouba (Egypt)- Professor of Voice at Cairo Conservatoire, the Academy of Arts, and the American University in Cairo, and founder of the Voice Department at Alexandria University’s Faculty of Education.
Ahmed el Attar (Egypt) via Skype – Independent theatre director, translator and playwright, who lives in Cairo and works in the Middle East and Europe. He is the founder and artistic director of the Temple Independent Theatre Company in Egypt and the founder and managing director of the Studio Emad Eddin Foundation.

The events that Dancing on the Edge and guests participated in:
Round Table 28 May: Re-Considering Inter- and Intra
Discussions with the Board of PSi on future collaborations
Seminar 31 May – Broadening International Exchange in Performance Studies
The financial support of Stichting DOEN and the Anna Lindh Foundation have made the above programs possible.

June 2011 

Voices from the Middle East: Films, Music and Debate during the Beeld voor Beeld Festival

11- 12 June, Amsterdam at the Tropentheater
The Middle East was one of the main themes in this edition of Beeld voor Beeld, a yearly documentary film festival that is concerned with cultural diversity. A program entitled Voices from the Middle East, made in cooperation with Dancing on the Edge took place the weekend of 11 and 12 June. As depicted in the films from Turkey, Israel, Lebanon and Iran, reality is determined by war, the violation of human rights and political instability but also by a desire to leave the past behind and live in freedom and democracy.

The films that were shown included Twenty Days that Shook Iran about the period of the 2009 presidential elections when a green gulf of hope swept through the country, and The One Man Village, about a post war ghost town in Lebanon.

On Saturday afternoon there was a program about Oriental Dance, featuring the film Rakasa (Belly Dancer), about the lives of different belly dancers. Directly followed by a discussion ‘Oriental Dance in Context’ moderated by Kaouthar Darmoni about the role and popularity of oriental dance in both the Middle East and the West. This is connected to the Orientalicious Shimmy Shake Belly Dance Festival (http:/www.orientalicious.nl), which took place at the same time also in the Tropentheater.


Program Voices from the Middle East:
SATURDAY JUNE 11
Voices from the Middle East: Turkey
Dead Souls
Voices from the Middle East: Oriental Dance
Rakasa (Belly Dancer)
Debate Oriental Dance in Context
Voices from the Middle East: Lebanon
In Spite of the War
The One Man Village

SUNDAY JUNE 12
Voices from the Middle East: Iran
Twenty Days That Shook Tehran
Voices from the Middle East: Iran
Daughters of Malakeh