In progress: Sticks and stones
Basem Adly (1979-) began his professional life as a footballer for the Mallawi Youth Centre in Menya. Following a string of achievements as a centre-forward, he left the football team to join the Youth Centre's traditional dance troupe, from which he progressed to the Mallawi Cultural Palace. It was there that Adly discovered his calling: the business of using his body as a medium for self-expression. Standing out as a stick dancer, he eventually joined the Stick Dance Centre, established by El-Warsha Theatre Company in Mallawi. Adly was among a few young artists from Menya to join El-Warsha in Cairo, where he expanded the scope of his activities to acting and singing and continued to develop his interest in the performing arts, placing the greatest emphasis on dance.
At the moment there is my work in El- Warsha, with several projects going on at the same time. The company is about to produce its own version of Tawfik El- Hakim's Rosasa fil-Qalb (Bullet in the Heart), which has a musical chorus and a group of four clown figures who act as the bailiffs. I am part of the chorus, doing principally vocal work with [the young composer] Basem El-Attar; I am also one of the clowns. I like the play, the light-hearted way in which it's done. I like it a lot and enjoy my contribution to it. All such activities are an important part of my growth as a performer, even if my focus is dancing. Besides Rosasa there is story-telling and singing, the latest of my songs being one of [the late comedian] Ismail Yasine's humorous numbers, "Iblis," in which Satan is ardently defended against the claim that he alone is responsible for evil. With a large group of colleagues we are also reading parts of the Thousand and One Nights, in preparation for a play to be written by Khaled and Naguib Guwaili. The more you work, as Hassan [El-Geretly] has told me, the more you realise potential abilities and talents. So regardless of my long-term focus, I find all these projects fulfilling and helpful.
Even though when I joined the company I was already a dancer, I can tell you in all sincerity that I only really learned to dance in El-Warsha. Hassan had a huge part to play in my life and in my growing sense of self as a performer. He not only singled me out, in this way bolstering my decision to become a dancer, he provided endless opportunities, counselling and day-to-day attention. Without that I could hardly have thought of myself as a dancer. Which is all by way of building up to telling you that the last occasion on which I performed as a dancer was during Ramadan, in Alexandria, with the Stick Dance Centre, in which my role has been reduced to a single, short solo episode in order to make way for younger members of the Centre. Of all that I do for El- Warsha, there is absolutely no doubt that this is what I enjoy most, especially working alongside members of the Centre and people from my hometown [of Mallawi]; this is the kind of performance in which I am entirely comfortable and it is what gives me the greatest sense of accomplishment. Rosasa is to be launched in Alexandria this month. The Thousand and One Nights readings will of course continue for a few months to come.
Other than El-Warsha, if still related, are two projects I am currently working on as a dancer. Tarek Aboulfetouh's Young Arab Theatre Fund is producing several small-scale shows to open in Menya and perhaps to travel to Berlin to participate in the House of World Cultures programme in March, and I am part of one of them. It was during the recent PhotoCairo exhibition that Tarek noticed an archival Van Leo picture of a dervish on roller skates. So far I've been working with Karima Mansour (my first modern dance show, a performance called "Love," staged in Al-Hanager and 2001, was with Karima; and I worked with her again both here and in France), trying to master roller skating, which I had never done before in my life, in order to be able to undertake the required movements with ease. The second project is this attempt to develop a solo show based not on established modern dance routines but on the simplest and most straightforward gestures and movements: things that we see all the time but fail to notice. That would be the first performance for me to choreograph.
But of all these things -- El-Warsha rehearsals, roller skating routines, my own attempt at choreography -- the most difficult activity is the dietary and exercise routine I've embarked on, because I've been getting out of shape and I realise I will always need all the energy and agility I can muster. Every morning I wake up early to run, and I have a strict diet that takes away from day-to-day pleasures; I am seeing a doctor who understands my weight loss requirements, my lifestyle and the limits of my endurance. It is hardly pleasurable, this horribly strict regime, but it's good in that it makes me feel on track, that I'm staying on top of my work and keeping up my spirit. Let's hope, in the end, that it will all pay off.
Based on an interview by Youssef Rakha
