Wujoud wa Hodoud

70 min.      No spoken language     Premiere 27. 07. 2018

The word “Wojoud” meaning “Existence” and the word “Hodoud” meaning “Borders” in Arabic, together draw personal stories of land, nation, division and struggle into the body and voice of eight Arab artists.  This dance production is a 60-minute-piece that combines technology with the human form, as well as scripted intentionality with spontaneity, into a kinetic narrative of the human condition. 

Cast:

Concept/Director: Abd Al Hadi Abunahleh

Choreographer: Anas Nahleh, Abd Al Hadi Abunahleh

Dance: Anas Nahleh, Emran Alamareen, Mohammad Qattan, Amer Ibrahim Dhman, Daniel issa, Omar Murra, Jalal Abu Khadejeh, Mahmoud Ahmad, Abd Al Hadi Abunahleh, Odai Talal, Jamal Suliman, Asem Al Khaja, Omar Hasanain

Original Score: Zaid Sajdi

Light Designer: Jiří Šmirk

Visuals and installation: Ren

Associate designer and technical support: Asem Al Khaja

Coordination and communication: Ahmed Ziad, Waseem Abd Rabu

Photographer: Ghassan Sela, Emily Nevis, Nuria Osama , Mohammad Emad, Ren, Orestis Alexiadis

Video-grapher: Mohammad Ali,  Amr Abu Eitah, Ren

Video-editor: Ren

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“This dance work is telling a story and it is a truthful story.”

The dance creation reflects the stories of eight Arab dancers, their constant struggle of assimilating into different cultures, finding a balance between them and balancing their identities within.

“There is nothing pretentious of this piece. It is very honest. You can see dancers are giving everything they to the performance.”

It is perfect. The transition is especially good. It is all about details. It is done well. I don’t like something predictably. Each choreography looks like it is promptly cut.

Videos Journey:

Initiated in 2017, Wujoud wa Hodoud went from a duet for non-theatre space to full-length theatre piece of 8 performers with original sound score of local writer, producer Zaid Sajdi and light design of awarding winning Czech artist Jiří Šmirk.

In its 50 months’ development, a team of more than 50 artists (dancers, choreographers, designers and composers, production personals ensure the construction, support and facilitation of aspects of the work, administration personals manage and coordinate the day-to-day operation, etc.) have been working together and through in-progress presentations, participating in festivals from home and abroad, Wujoud wa Hodoud reached more than 1500 audiences.

Creating videos of this 4-year-journey of making visions of dance come alive is fun. The video are the tickets to unbeatable nostalgia. In August 2017, after coming back from a-two-year-study of anthropology in Europe, Jordanian choreographer Abd Al Hadi Abunahleh, reconciling his feelings about his heritage, acknowledging of the multi-culture that composes his identity drove me to create a duet dance with his younger brother. This is the birth of “Wojoud Wa Hodoud”. It has been in development for one year. Started from a duet, the dance creation evolves into an investigation of the embodied past of eight Arab performing artists of Jordanian, Palestinian, Syrian heritage living in Amman, observing the acquired habits from the childhood to adulthood, from past to present. 

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In the past 3 years, we made many videos capture the movements, patterns, shapes, dynamics, the colors, textures, design elements of this dance creation, and the various emotions we had taking on the journey: excitement, anxiety, curiosity, frustration and AMAZEMENT.