European Centre for Art, Culture and Science

Thursday December 13 2007 / Internationalization

Café Méditerrané: Cultural Meetings with the Middle East, Dancing on the Edge

What is the significance of modernity and tradition in the art and culture of the Middle East, specifically dance? In this second edition of Café Méditerranée we seize upon the Dancing on the Edge festival for a more detailed stocktaking of the state of affairs in the cultural sector in the Middle East. The dance from the Middle East in this festival displays a number of extremely advanced forms. What is the relationship with other international developments in dance? And what relationship does dance bear to other developments in art in the Middle East?

The Dancing on the Edge festival presents a new generation of choreographers from the Middle East. SICA has invited several of these talked about participants for a discussion, namely Dina Abu Hamdan (artistic coordinator of the Amman Dance Festival, Jordan), Omar Rajeh (choreographer and founder of the BIPOD festival in Beirut), Mohammed Shafiq (choreographer from Egypt) and Mey Safan (choreographer from Syria/Germany).

In addition to the discussion, under the guidance of Chris Keulemans, we will screen film images of work from the choreographers, and one of the most famous contemporary poets from the Arab world will perform, the Syrian poet Adunis.

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