Touring Now: Oscillations (El Mizan)

Oscillations (El Mizan)

“The meeting point between head and heart, east and west, traditional and contemporary, classical and modern, a point of balance, a point of clarity and understanding, union beyond separation, a sense of freedom, where one feels limitless and moves without effort, where an integrated body carves clear lines of emotion and life.”

Oscillations, Suraya Hilal’s new work is about the swing of the pendulum and the point of balance found in the oscillating journey of life. In the first part Suraya works with the solo classical Oud, the foremost musical instrument of the Arab world. For Suraya, the oud unites head and heart. The strings when played vibrate crystal clear notes of pure intellect and simultaneously resonate through the wood with the warmth of heart. After a few years of searching for the right oud player, Suraya was finally inspired by the work of Joseph Tawadros, a leading Egyptian musician, based in Sydney, Australia.

In the first piece “on the wing” Suraya Hilal work with Tawadros’ recorded solo improvisations. The choreographies, set for two dancers, Suraya Hilal and Sarah Hamilton bring to light essential elements that realize the point of balance in body, in mind, and in life, actualized through the metaphor of flying, the sense of freedom one gains from finding equilibrium.

In the second part of the work, Suraya collaborates with Artistic Director & choreographer of the Iskandar Dance Company, Alessandro el Bascioni to produce works with three expert musicians, Emile Basilli on Violin, Gamil Awad on the Qanun Keybourd, and Ibrahim el Minyawi on Req Percussion. This piece is about the sharing of space and vision to create one coherent integrated work of depth and beauty; again, a give and take in the oscillating journey, two can become one. Together, with Sarah Hamilton, they bring to life the art music of 19th/ 20th century Arab/Egyptian courtly heritage. This dance piece explores the depth and beauty of the oscillating journey found in the classical music expressed in a modern and universal language.

Background to Suraya’s new work:

The Cultural heritage being a rich source of wisdom and knowledge provides the basis and foundation that can inform the creative process and is often the pivotal point for the beginning of something new. It is important to use traditional elements in a fluid, organic and non rigid way so that the artist or creator can move and progress these forms into new and different realms of expression reflecting the now experience of life. One can say that this is the authentic way of moving into contemporary expression. The contemporary form that Suraya Hilal has created emerges from the movement heritage of the Arab culture and is fully informed by the wisdom of the East, where the roots of all her system lie in the way people move and in her organic knowledge and response to Arab music. What makes her work contemporary is not in borrowing or using any western contemporary dance vocabulary, but in the natural progression and expansion of her eastern traditions. The western elements that she has integrated in her work are in the use of Theatre dynamics that expand and highlight the dramatic expressions of her dance. Also, her creative response does not stop at Arab music alone. She has worked with western classical music (chamber ensembles) flamenco, Jazz, modern classical pieces.

"...Absolute poetry." (Stuttgarter Nachrichten)

[In Oscillations] - "Hilal has the ability to cast hypnotic spell with the simplest movements; a solitary gesture or an intense gaze...to watch her perform is to see music" (The Metro) Keith Watson