Thursday, May 19, 2011

Explore the Arts

Explore the Arts
           

With Art programs being eliminated from public schools due to budget cuts, and with overworked and underfinanced parents unable to provide their children with private art lessons, we face a future of adults without strong creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills. Arts promote, encourage and provide a safe, exploring experience for children and young people to practice skills that are vital to the rest of their education. How can a child solve a complex scientific problem without the ability to think creatively and be innovative? The effect of art on children cannot be denied or ignored.
AGORA Arts & Culture in partnership with FigLeaf Studios are launching their new Program "Explore the Arts" to be implemented in Saint Gabriel School starting 17 June 2011.

"Explore the Arts" is an educational program providing the students, the teachers and the Parents a platform of exploration and experimentation through the practice of Arts using non-formal learning techniques.
Workshop trainers will be introduced to the non-formal learning techniques before the launching of the program. If you are interested to join the of the implementation team and be part of the first generation of trainers using a structured set of non-formal learning techniques, please contact us agorayouthclub@gmail.com.

Launching of "Explore the Arts" Program will be on Friday 3 June (12:00 noon to 5:00 pm) in Saint Gabriel School

JOIN EXPLORE THE ARTS FESTIVAL, 3 June, 12:00 noon, Free Entry
 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

NASSIM EL-RAQS

Egyptians love to spend their free time in the streets and various cafes. We invite the Alexandrians to a new experience by bringing contemporary dance shows from different backgrounds and with new styles into popular places all over Alexandria. Centre Rezodanse, Goethe-Institut Alexandria, Institut Francais d’Égypte à Alexandrie and Agora realise this project in cooperation, which was initiated by Motawassat.
Four performances - Four places
Days of contemporary dance in Alexandria
Four choreographers coming from Egypt and Europe are invited to take over four outdoor locations throughout Alexandria: Cultural spaces and public places which are important to the city’s identity will be rediscovered through their artistic vision leading to four performances given on 12th and 13th May. We invite you on an artistic journey through these different locations, opening up new perspectives on the city through the eyes of the artists.
Take part in the introducing roundtable about performing arts in public spaces, and learn about various experiences which took place all around the Mediterranean, with guest speakers from Egypt, Germany and Tunisia.
Nassim al Raqs – a breeze of dance – is a new event which sheds light on contemporary dance projects in open air venues in Alexandria, by inviting artists to create in the heart of the city. The project raises the question of arts in the public space


May 11, 7pm
Symposium / roundtable: Performing arts in public spaces – experiences across the Mediterranean
Location: Institut Français d’Egypte à Alexandrie, 30 Rue Nabi Daniel
Speakers: Adham Hafez, Selma Ouissi, Frederic Gies, Shaymaa Shoukry, Mohamed Fouad, Mohamed Shafik
Talks and discussion in French with Arabic translation
Streets and public spaces in Egypt are lively, from dawn till night. Yet, what does it mean when the artist takes over those public spaces to transform them into venues for performances? The public space becomes then raw material for artistic expression, a tool in the hands of the artist. From this idea as a starting point, and in view of various examples of similar projects implemented around the Mediterranean region, this symposium aims at raising the question of the arts in the public space, by sharing the point of view of the artist, the events organizer, and the institution.  

Performances:
May 12, 7pm
Frédéric Gies – Seven thirty in tights / Alexandria
Location: Bibliotheca Alexandrina Plaza
For Gies his ten dancers on stage form a group comparable to a living organism. Each dancer is an important cell of this organism. This leads to an artistic dialogue which doesn’t accept ignoring or isolating or oppressing any of them as this would cause tensions which endanger the whole process. Imagine this performance would be a political practice.
Frédéric Gies lives and works in Berlin. He is part of the collective Praticable. He creates his pieces alone or in collaboration with other choreographers. His most recent pieces, which benefit from an international visibilty, are Dance (Praticable) group and solo versions, The breast piece (Praticable) /in collaboration with Alice Chauchat, Album (Praticable) and The blanket dance /in collaboration with Jefta van Dinther and DD Dorvillier. He teaches in different contexts, such as SNDO or also the dance BA and the choreography MA at DOCH in Stockholm.
May 12, 9pm
Mohamed Fouad –Falling bodies
Location: Cinema Rio, Rooftop
In light of what the region is witnessing, the falling succession of the deposed regimes, people face the after-fall fantasy, which carries a lot of feelings and ideas (sadness, anger, joy, heartbreak, hope, expectation) and what after this fall that took place by the hands of the real owners of power “the people”......... What’s next?!
Mohamed Fouad graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Department of Theatre. He participated as a dancer and choreographer in many performances and directed 4 performances. Represented Egypt with "cafeteria" at the Festival of Carthage in Tunisia. Founder of the "Kaff" group for Dance and Performing Arts. The first Egyptian dancer and choreographer who received the grant of "Danceweb ImPulsTanz Festival" in Vienna, Austria.
May 13, 7pm
Shaymaa Shoukry, Border
Location: Beach in front of Swedish Institute
Performers… interacting with the live sounds, projected images (video) and the public to create layers of focuses on the different aspects of the sight…. The sea… the boats… the buildings … the promenade… the street… the borders… the limits… the harshness…the softness… and the other… how all these elements co-exist and create complex systems… our cities
Decomposing to recompose … the perception of our spaces and ourselves.
Shaymaa Shoukry is a young dancer and choreographer from Cairo. Following comprehensive training in contemporary dance in Cairo, Shaymaa took part in many projects in Egypt and abroad, including the Miniature project in Marseilles in 2010, an artistic residency in the framework of the Dancing on the Edge international festival in the Netherlands last year, and a participation in the 2B Continued festival in Cairo in January 2011. Besides her career in the dance field, Shaymaa shows many other talents as an artist, with several participations in cinema and theatre projects, as well as in exhibitions as a visual artist. She continues to draw on that experience in her work as a choreographer. Her dance pieces are therefore not only considered from the mere point of view of the dancer, but also as comprehensive art works with strong staging and visual elements. 
May 13, 9pm
Mohamed Shafik: Restoration under construction
Location: Anfushi Shipyard
The ideas of construction, restoration, or re-construction have all inspired Mohamed Shafiq in his artistic residency in Alexandria. By choosing Anfushi's ship yard as a symbolical place expressing the notion of work in progress and the idea of creation and construction, as well as the feeling of safety, in the sense that workers try to make their ships safer, the artist explores the ways in which this concept also relates to nowadays new Egyptian context. Local workers and fishermen will be involved in the creative process, and will take part alongside professional performing artists to the show. This group will be building the new country ship.
Mohamed Shafik worked as a dancer for the National Company for folkloric arts then for the Modern dance Company, Cairo opera House, where his understanding for dance and creation changed. Presented his first work as director "When things happen" with a group of young actors and won the first award in the experimental theatre festival in Cairo. Directed many performances, such as Homma, Hadid; Seven colors of a birthday; and Witness of the body. Mohamed is known now as one of the representatives of the new generation of Egyptian choreographers and is regularly invited to international festivals in Europe.