In January 1963, Al Hilal magazine published an article on the establishment of a ballet school in Cairo. The school, described as a “factory of the new bodies”, was to become an important institution in Nasser's nation-state building project. Ballet was posited to be the new dance form that would create a rupture with folkloric dances and “modernize” the body. Learning to Dance is a partial adaptation of Arsanios’ video Olga’s Notes, All those Restless Bodies (2014). It seeks to look at a specific dance history through the bodies of the dancers, and at the bodies of the dancers through the politics of learning and training that were followed by each one of them. Learning to Dance is visual artist Marwa Arsanios’ first performance.

Performance in English with Arabic subtitles, 40’, 2015

In collaboration with choreographer: Danya Hammoud. Dancers: Pierre Geagea, Ghida Hashisho. Thanks to: Sandra Iche and Alia Hamdan. Production: Ashkal Alwan (Beirut) in the context of Home Works 7.

Photo: courtesy of the artist.