19th and 20th of May 7.30 PM, Arts Printing House, Yard

Le Cauchemar de Darwish
Ben Fury and Simon Thierrée (Belgium)

Idea and choreography: Ben Fury and Simon Thierrée
Music: Simon Thierrée
Thanks to: Sophia Moussa

Premiere: 2016
Duration: 20 min

I am from here and from there,
I am neither from here or there,
I have two names which tangle and untangle and I have two languages...
Mahmoud Darwish

One dancer, one violinist and his machines. An enticing non-didactic piece about a possible understanding, an obvious brotherhood. Le Cauchemar de Darwish consists in a transformation, one simple and traditional step within a solo dance, in a hundred footsteps circle.
The origin of Le Cauchemar de Darwish is the will to dance a short piece in the middle of the audience. The inspiration also comes from traditional Middle Eastern dance used for celebrations and weddings, the dabkeh. 

Music is central to Le Cauchemar de Darwish. It takes us on a ride through ornamented refrains in the Berber style taqtoqa jebelia, passing by raw sounds from trap music – dubstep’s electronic sister and hip-hop’s unruly daughter. The spirit of the popular Moroccan band Jil Jilala, influenced by gnawa and Berber cultures hovers over the piece. The two artists sing one of the band’s most famous songs a cappella, initiating a pulsating circle – amplified until deconstructed.

Ben Fury and Simon Thierrée met in Brussels, at the crossroad of contemporary dance and circus: Ben dances regularly for Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Fatou Traoré, Simon composes for classical or gypsy ensembles and plays with circus and contemporary dance companies such as Rital Brocante and Les SlovaKs Dance Collective. This movement piece with live music combines the backgrounds of both artists: breakdance for Ben and traditional, classical and jazz music for Simon. Both of them share the influences of the Middle East, contemporary dance and music.

Lots of musicians are reputed within the whole Arabic world, but popular Pan-Arabic poets and writers are rarer. Through his poems relating to Palestine as well as identity, nostalgia and the helplessness of exile, Mahmoud Darwish represents a common voice for the Arabic world

Free entrance

More information:www.newbalticdance.lt