Suraya Hilal Dance Company

The Suraya Hilal Dance Company is uniquely placed in the contemporary dance world, drawing inspiration from the roots of Egyptian dance culture. The Company’s work represents an unparalleled development of Egyptian/Arab dance and music. Suraya Hilal is hailed as one of the great dance talents of our time; her work has been showcased throughout Europe with tremendous popular and critical acclaim.

Major Programmes

Suraya Hilal began her major work in Britain between 1983-1993 supported by the Arts Council of Britain, where she toured extensively with her musicians throughout Europe. Hilal has created many theatre programmes, among them,

The Return of the Spirit (1985-88) Celebration of the Nile (1989) Jewels (1989-91) Divine Rites (1990-91) Colours of Cairo (1990-91) The Beloved (1990-91) Journey to Lights (1995) Spirit of the Heart (1997-2000) Al Janub (2001-03) Aseel (2004-06) Oscillations (el Mizan) (2008)

Click here for progmmes descriptions

Click here to see video clips of the performances

All these works have toured successfully throughout Europe and in the UK at many well known theatres including

Sadler’s Wells, London The Place, London Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Purcell Room, London Edinburgh Festival, Tanzhaus-NRW, Dusseldorf Haus der Kulturen, Berlin Tropenininstitute, Amsterdam RNCM, Manchester The Dome, Brighton Playhouse, Oxford Aldeburgh Festival, Savoy, Helsinki IMA, Paris Depot, Stuttgart Theaterspektakel, Zurich Tans Hus, Stockholm Rotebhul Theatre, Stuttgart and many other venues in France, Copenhagen and other major cities.

Recent Development

Suraya Hilal began as a solo artist and later moved on to work with dancers in company. Depending on the project, her work varies from solo to duos to trios. Live music is essential for Hilal’s work, and her major productions have encompassed a full Arab ensemble of 10 to 11 musicians and a singer. Currently, Hilal’s choreography and work has progressed and moved on to value the purity of movement, music and rhythm. She currently collaborates with a smaller ensemble of 3 to 4 musicians.

The quality of her work now embraces a distillation of the essence of movement with the clear and vibrant sound of the solo instrument or voice. This fires the imagination and power behind her choreographies today. A major new departure in her work and the movement form itself began with the use of the voice in “Spirit of the Heart”, and was clear in “Al Janub”, " Aseel" and now more than ever in the new work “Oscillations" (El Mizan).

Aims

Suraya Hilal Dance Company exists for the purpose and value of:

• Dance for its own sake, as a powerful medium to move us and even to shift our consciousness.

• Music, especially live, is intrinsically connected to the musicality of the body and its movements.

• The purity of dance, movement, music and their dramatic content and complexities without superfluous elements added to it.

• Culture and heritage as a source of great knowledge that can provide the artist the freedom of expression to extend the traditional to the contemporary.

• Dancers showing their uniqueness, humanity as well as their excellence on the stage.

• Collaboration with individuals or groups that facilitate the creation of exciting new forms.

• Innovation! In all its forms.