In progress: Playing it wide
By
Youssef Rakha
Beatrice Kombe started dancing in 1989, working with Ivory Coast-based groups like Ten-20 and La Kimodo. Eventually she took up choreography and founded her own troupe, Tche Tche, in 1997. Her contemporary-dance style is inspired less by traditional African forms than by her vision of everyday life.
Moguiba Marius and I arrived in Cairo about a month ago to begin rehearsing the show with Karima [Mansour]; the concept was agreed on one and a half years ago here in Cairo, and it was produced as part of the Arab-African programme of the Young Arab Theatre Fund (YATF), a programme that is supported by the Ford Foundation. We were supposed to perform two nights in Cairo, and another two in Alexandria. In the end the Cairo arrangement fell through, so we just did the Alexandria performances, at the Garage Theatre, on 26 and 27 February. I was pleased with the way it was received, yes. A thoroughly intercultural project, at every level. It's interesting to be part of experiments that involve different parts of Africa -- and different parts of the world.
I first knew of Karima through YATF during the Amman Theatre Days, in April 2000; we soon met and tried to work together. We collaborated once before, in 2000, on the choreography of a piece called Solo, but as the name suggests she was on stage by herself. This time round we are both on stage. And we play with each other, in more than one sense. That was the exciting thing about the present piece, Games. We choreographed it together, the way we did Solo, but this time we did it knowing that we would both perform. So the interaction began very early on -- during the first rehearsal we were already engaged in a kind of exchange. That, I've found, is very helpful as a growing experience.
It's basically about the idea of a game, not necessarily as a way of passing time but, more interestingly, as a form of relating to others. The other, the relationship with the other, once it assumes expressive form. Initially we did a lot of improvisation until we reached an exchange we were happy with. And what we ended up with is a broad range of game concepts. The game of killing, a violent game. There is the prevalent notion of power games, there is the notion of game as simple (though still essentially mutual) entertainment. How far can you go in a game? And at which point does a game cease to be a matter of passing painless time and begin to infringe on your sense of self or unsettle your presumably established existence. The game of chance. The game of perseverance. The game of avoiding confrontation. Are games a form of having power over others, in the end? Are they a way of controlling the actions of others? Are they ever, in the end, empty of purpose? Such questions are raised in many ways, and they take on the form of an elaborate conversation, almost. That aspect of the piece I think we both really enjoyed.
The idea of a game has a much wider relevance for me, because in some ways it's really what dance is about. It's playing a game with your body, turning your body into an instrument of hopefully joyful self expression. But to say it's self expression isn't necessarily to imply that it's a one-sided form of communication. At a very deep level one is constantly aware of the audience, of the response of the audience. And this is another way in which it could be said to be a game, the way it is with actors on stage. As a dancer you too play a game with the audience. In this sense Games was both a challenging and a rewarding project. Even when the orientation of this piece or that sequence of movements is largely abstract, you are still playing a game: drawing someone to you, telling them something or keeping them away. In some ways it is almost like having a conversation. And there was an element of that in the Alexandria performances, yes, which makes me think it was successful.
We hope to hold a performance in Cairo, sooner or later. But it's difficult when you live so far away and obstacles are in the way. As a part of the Arab-African exchange in question, though, it is a very rewarding endeavour. An Arab playing a game with an African.
It's hard to think about much else when for almost a month you have been doing nothing else, but of course Games is not the only piece I've been working on in recent weeks.
Before coming here I was at Gainsville College, in Florida, teaching dance, which is a more recent side of my work. I worked with the same students I had worked with in 2001; and at the end of 2002 they had improved a lot. It's very rewarding, this kind of interaction. We put on two shows, in the end: Voyage and Breathing. They were both very successful. The beauty of dance is that it is not rooted in any way that might endanger your own personal vision -- it could be anywhere, with anyone familiar with the required techniques, and you can come with something together. That's a really fun part of it.
The next step is Brussels, where I will meet with Karima again. Each of us will put on her own show. And it is after this, I hope, that we will attempt to perform Games in Cairo.
