Contemporary Dance at AUC (American University of Cairo)

"You were - once - wild. Don´t let them tame you."

Isadora Duncan

It was interesting to see and FEEL a series Contemporary Dance (Theatrical exercises) at the Theater of the American University in Cairo. Drinking from different forms of Art always INSPIRES me for my ORIENTAL DANCE work.

It´s a long history of RULE breaking and exploring further horizons. Isadora Duncan -considered the Mother of Modern Dance - started it all by rejecting the limitations (physical, technical, artistic, human, etc) of Classical Ballet and it´s not surprising that she RESCUED greek dance to create a NEW - I call it ETERNAL - language that went against the formality, rigidity and anti-natura standards of Classical Ballet.

Even less surprising is knowing that Greek Dance was highly influenced by Oriental Dance (Egypt and neighbor countries) and that, if we dig enough and in an intelligent way, we may deduce Oriental Dance is the Mother of ALL DANCES. Now...I know...lots of criticism will come from this statement but here we go(!); I´m used to it. 

I watched this set of performances before yesterday, among an atypical crowd that - I guess- didn´t know what they were seeing. I went, specifically, to see my dear friend Yasmine Kamel and support her with my presence but enjoyed the experience in itself for the sake of the old and new ideas that were presented.

Once more, I saw theater and dance holding hands as they are- in fact - brother and sister. Theater is the boy and Dance is the girl: Apollo and Dionysus, in my opinion (although theater has been associated with Dionysus since its origin). Communicating with ORAL VERBAL LANGUAGE - theater - and without words - dance. 

What I loved the most was the COURAGE to try territories that are misunderstood by 99% of the audiences, may them be egyptian or any other. Contemporary Dance-Theater is not an easy cookie to crack  and, certainly, not for the masses (at least, not yet) but it´s a row of OPEN DOORS and WINDOWS that I truly appreciate as an Artist and a Person.

Also enjoyed CONFIRMING the reality: DANCE is LIFE and vice-versa. The movement vocabulary performers used in this show were a rescue of daily, organic movements all of us do from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. The notion that DANCE is ONLY a limited, formated set of movements one learns is reduced to ashes once you understand the ORIGIN of each movement. When you walk, you are DANCING. When you sit, you are DANCING. When you make love, you are - for sure - DANCING. From the instant you move, you are POTENTIALLY DANCING. LIFE is DANCE; MOVEMENT is DANCE; FREEDOM is DANCE; SOUL and BODY are DANCE. And so on...

Once DANCE is considered forbidden and sinful, LIFE itself becomes forbidden and sinful (and I wonder: how stupid is that?!).

Wishing to see more of this COURAGE. Here in Egypt; everywhere.