as part of Fabbrica Europa 2024
Dance is not for Us is a solo creation choreographed and performed by Omar Rajeh, where he takes us into his dance and autobiographical universe, looking into the ‘performance’ as an act of gathering and shared experience.
The dancing body creates its own rules, its own structure, and its own inspirations, as an act of hope, in opposition to structures of power that diminish such dynamics towards an act of normality and fear.
Omar Rajeh travels back into the past. Alone onstage, he dances and speaks of an intimate past that exists no more, of a fading image, and a deceiving one as well. A past that did not transfer into a future but one that was stopped.
The images, the meanings, the feelings, the people, the happy moments, everything froze. As if today he deals with a World with no past. As if the story of today do not fit with the past images of his life.
Omar Rajeh is a choreographer, dancer, founder and artistic director of Maqamat. Initially based in Lebanon since 2002, he moved and set up his company in Lyon in 2020 and he continues to create and develop his projects in Lebanon, France and internationally. He was distinguished by the French Ministry of Culture ‘for his contribution and engagement in the service of Culture’ with the title of ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters). He created more than twenty choreographic creations that were widely presented in major international festivals around the World. His work is always carried with strong compositions and an invested and vigorous physical presence. Omar Rajeh is the founder of the BIPOD- Beirut International Platform of Dance, co-founder of Masahat network, the founder of Takween, an intensive training program, and Moultaqa Leymoun, a platform that showcases and develops the work of artists and choreographers from the Arab countries. In 2017, he designed and established Citerne Beirut, a choreographic and cultural center in Lebanon which, following its forced dismantling in 2019, gave birth in France to Citerne.live in 2020.
concept, scenography and choreography: Omar Rajeh
co-creation Mia Habis
dramaturgy: Peggy Olislaegers
music composition: Joss Turnbull & Charbel Haber
lighting design and technical director: Christian François
administration: Ilitza Georgieva
coordination: Amina Onsy
special thanks: CN D à Lyon, Sima Performing Arts-Alserkal Avenue, Amadeus – école de danse et de musique
with the support of the DRAC Auvergne Rhône-Alpes
Dance is not for Us at Fabbrica Europa is supported by Nuovi Mecenati – Fondazione franco-italiana di sostegno alla creazione contemporanea.
photo: Giuseppe Follacchio
