A choreographic act of resistance comes to Clough’
Saturday’s event with Gaza dancers
On Saturday, May 24, at 1.30pm in Cloughjordan, dance company Instant Dissidence supported by Sheelagh na Gig Bookshop presents Dancing with Strangers: From Palestine to Ireland, a choreographic act of resistance where four dancers in Gaza offer people in Ireland an embodied experience of their personal story of occupation and genocide.
As Israel continues to bomb Gaza, Gaza-based dancers Agour, Just, Khaled and Maryam have been remote-working with Instant Dissidence’s Artistic Director, Rita Marcalo, to create dance duets that they would like to perform with people in Ireland, as a choreographic act of resistance.
As they are unable to be present in Ireland, this choreographic act of resistance is achieved by members of the Ireland-based dance community acting as ‘body avatars’ for each Palestinian dancer's role in their original duet. Through them (and the exchanged gift of dance) Agour, Just, Khaled and Maryam are going to ask you to dance: they want their voices to be heard and their bodies to be felt.
A dancer with outstretched arms wears a T-shirt that says ‘Dance with Me.’ Dance with the stranger and complete the connection.
Performed internationally, Dancing with Strangers: From Palestine To Ireland comes to Cloughjordan as part of Feminist Book Fortnight, an annual bookseller-led celebration of feminist and radical books from May 13-27. This year Sheelagh na Gig Bookshop is highlighting books by Palestinian and Palestinian-diaspora authors, including Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction edited by Sonia Sulaiman and Namesake: Reflections on a Warrior Woman by NS Nuseibeh.
Dances, film, and readings
From 1.30 to 5.30pm on Saturday, May 24, you are invited to dance with one of the Instant Dissidence dancers, who are stand-ins for each Gaza-based dancer. When you participate, the dancers first hand you a set of 4 cards: each card contains brief information on each Gaza-based dancer, and a child’s drawing (to protect their identities) of a portrait photo sent to Instant Dissidence by them. You choose which dancer to dance with from that set of cards, and we hand you a set of headphones with the audio created by your chosen dancer. As you listen, you find yourself dancing with that dancer (through one of us) to the music of their choice and listening to their personal story.
With your permission we will video record your participation and upload it onto Instagram, to enable the Gaza-based dancers to watch the results of their intended duet and feel the solidarity from people in Ireland. You will also be able to follow the project’s Instagram account and leave any messages you want to send to the Gaza-based dancers, which they will be able to read.
Throughout the afternoon, various participants will also read extracts from the featured books, and the short film of Dancing with Strangers: From Palestine to Ireland will be shown on loop. Directed by award-winning director Gavin Fitzgerald, whose work has been shown on Netflix, the BBC and in international film festivals, the film captures Dublin pedestrians as they join the dance and are transported into the intimate and very real stories of Palestinian artists. The camera closely surveils their every move as life in the background remains starkly unaltered. Intimate and deeply moving, the film of Dancing with Strangers: From Palestine to Ireland also lets you enter the personal, deep, embodied experience of the dancers in Gaza.
This live performance of Dancing with Strangers: From Palestine to Ireland is one of only two performances in Ireland.
Donations will be accepted throughout the day, and all money will be transferred directly to the four dancers in Gaza.