NASSIM EL RAQS #7

NASSIM EL RAQS #7 – (Subtitle no longer needed)

EDITORIAL

For seven years, Nassim El Raqs has been searching for the words to describe itself; nevertheless, with time, it keeps reinventing itself. Every year, for many hours, endless discussions have ventured to create a definition that best suits Nassim’s practices and current ambitions.

Fighting hardships, rejecting already trodden tracks, and trying to justly define the vagueness, improvisations, and daily inventions on which we depend to empower this ‘event’, ‘work of art’, ‘artistic endeavor’ or even ‘social malady’… This is Nassim, a constant rewriting.

Today, it seems that we do not need a subtitle: Nassim El Raqs has become a festival, a writing laboratory, and a new space available for artists and the public; above all, Nassim has become one big community.

A community of logic, a community of participation, a big family, a crowd; Nassim reactivates itself every year, in the Spring, to experiment and exchange creative ideas, to make an impact, and to contribute to the progress of the grand Mediterranean society that makes us who we are. A society that is able to think and propagate, starting from the South.

If Alexandria knew how to invent a cosmopolitan model many decades ago, today our modest project for the city also seeks to offer new ways to live together: based on art, culture, creation, and cooperation as the path (and sole possibility) for a humanitarian unity and individual and group liberation.

And so, definitions are of no importance; art and its lexical terminology is not our main focus. What is more urgent is to love each other, get closer, and to create together a happier society for the future.

Many famous choreographers, whom we love deeply, and who cooperated with the festival either recently or many years ago, have decided to share with important contributions. Olivier Dubois will join the opening to work on the vital memory via the adaptation of the text:  Afternoon of a Faun by Nijinsky. Then, Mohamed Fouad will present a remarkable performance featuring Selsela group, the product of the first year of teaching contemporary dance in Alexandria. And for the closure, Ex-Nihilo will demonstrate the fruitful outcome of their months-long cooperation with SHAPERS through dance training in the Mediterranean public spaces.
Other artists will take us to new grounds of experiments and research: wanderings, exploration protocols and camps with Ici-meme, and Aly El Adawy and his Spanish companions.

We are waiting for you in our seventh season in which participation, art, and creativity is as we are and what we pursue; in light of what we shall exchange and our approach to coexisting.

All of this, bear in mind, to forever and always keep on honoring all those who left, and all those we have lost…

Emilie Petit
Nassim El Raqs funder


Momkin – espaces de possibles [Marseille, France] aims at initiating and accompanying artistic and cultural projects within cities and territories across the Mediterranean region, by creating, producing, and performing artistic works, as well as through the development of cultural and intercultural projects, of training programmes and awareness building campaigns. Since 2011, Momkin has carried out the Nassim el Raqs festival, featuring artistic initiatives linked to the city of Alexandria.

Sevilla artistic residency

At the Mes de Danza # 23 contemporary dance festival (October 26 – November 6), the SHAPERS project had its first artistic residency. This residency was held with the Moroccan and Egyptian dancers in the project, as well as the 2 Spanish dancers selected in the audition that preceded the residence.


Mes de Danza [Seville, Spain] Since its first edition in 1994, the main objective of Mes de Danza Festival is to explore dance in its widest and most varied approaches and trends, and to link performances with the audience (whether familiar or not with dance). Beyond its role as a festival, Mes de Danza has contributed to shape and strengthen the local dance scene, in Andalusia and Spain. www.mesdedanza.es

 

 

Workshop and Audition in Sevilla

A two-day workshop and audition took place October 17th and 18th in Sevilla, Spain. Following this workshop, two Spanish dancers were selected to join the creation of the choreographic piece, SHAPERS, during the artistic residency during the Mes de Danza Contemporary Dance Festival #23.

This was the first public presentation of the performance.

This phase of the project included getting in touch with local actors from the danse scene in Seville.

The two dancers selected from Spain:

Lucia Bocanegra
Elvira Balboa

 

 

 

 

 


Mes de Danza [Seville, Spain] Since its first edition in 1994, the main objective of Mes de Danza Festival is to explore dance in its widest and most varied approaches and trends, and to link performances with the audience (whether familiar or not with dance). Beyond its role as a festival, Mes de Danza has contributed to shape and strengthen the local dance scene, in Andalusia and Spain. www.mesdedanza.es

 

 

T-Talk I at the Tanzmesse

Challenging perception: Dance in public places in the Euro-Mediterranean – PART i

 

Partners of the SHAPERS project presented at the internationale tanzmesse nrw, a biennial gathering of contemporary dance professionals in Düsseldorf, Germany. They spoke about their exploration of how dance can help to renegotiate the perception and role of the body in public spaces in the Mediterranean through their project during a T-Talk.

The impact of dance in a public setting varies across cultural regions. Depending on the cultural background, it relates to the role of the body in public. Partners from France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco, Spain and Egypt have joined forces as part of the EU project SHAPERS, which will present dance in public settings at festivals. As part of the project presentation, the cooperation partners are exploring how dance can help to renegotiate the perception and role of the body in public in the Mediterranean.


Internationale tanzmesse nrw gathers artists from more than 50 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia providing an equal opportunity to present their work to a professional audience. The Tanzmesse is an event dedicated to contemporary dance without any specific geographical focus.

More on the internationale tanzmesse nrw