In progress:

Vocational chores

Karima Mansour graduated from the Cinema Institute in 1991. In the same year she started a professional formation dance course in Italy, and from 1993 to 1997 attended the London School of Contemporary Dance, earning both a BA and an MA. On returning to Egypt she formed her own troupe, Maat, which staged its debut performance in 2000.

What have I been doing with my professional life? Well, the last performance was Games, a collaboration with the Ivory Coast dancer Beatrice Kombe that opened at the Garage Theatre, Alexandria.

Prior to the two Garage performances there were supposed to be two performances at the Gumhouriya Theatre but the Opera House decided to cancel them five days before they were due. The reasons they gave us explained nothing. Indeed it continues to remain completely inexplicable. It's difficult enough to be doing dance in Egypt: why one needs such negative intervention on the part of the institution is beyond me. There was no time to seek out an alternative venue in Cairo so we're hoping to hold a Cairo performance as soon as Beatrice can come back.

Anyway, the show is about the idea of a game. On Solo, the last show I did with Beatrice, we had collaborated on the choreography but I was on stage by myself. This time the most interesting part was that we were both on stage, and using the language of dance we were playing with each other, a broad variety of games. What is good about working with a professional contemporary dancer, as well, is that you have the opportunity to improvise, to work out the movements gradually as they evolve. Whereas in most cases, due to the scarcity of professional dancers in Egypt, and the status of contemporary dance in general, what you have to do is quickly arrive at a set of movements by yourself and immediately fix them, so that the non-professionals you're working with can easily assimilate them. I've worked with all kinds of performers: circus people, stick dancers...

That, sadly, has been my predicament since I arrived from London: the failure to acknowledge contemporary dance for the discipline, the serious endeavour that it is; and the insistence on presenting what is palpably not contemporary dance as contemporary dance. When I came back from London I realised that it is a relatively new art that doesn't really have a local history. So it wasn't entirely unexpected that obstacles should start presenting themselves. And this understanding helps with the fact that you're in a constant struggle. Hopefully there will be enough sustained interest and support for one to keep going here in Egypt. Hopefully, the medium will grow, gaining not only recognition but popularity and status among Egyptians.

I always wanted to be a dancer. The decision to study cinema was made largely to appease my parents, to convince them that the choice to be a dancer is not simply an easy way out but is in fact as much of a commitment, and as demanding, as a career in medicine. I had danced since the age of five, which facilitated enrolling at the London Contemporary Dance School. Initially I had no intention of being a choreographer, but working here I realised before too long that, if I were to dance at all I would have to create the context; that included forming my troupe, Maat, and more often than not it includes choreographing the shows. Due to the lack of facilities -- like a venue, or sustained funds -- my work tends to be project based. What enabled me to put together Maat's first show, starting in 1999, was the support of the Royal Netherlands Embassy and the Young Arab Theatre Fund; it was through the latter that I first met Beatrice, too.

Between 2000 and 2003 I did six pieces, some of which, like Tempo Rament, which I did in collaboration with a percussionist, have yet to be performed in Egypt. In this period I performed at festivals in Rome, Marseilles, Salonike, Beirut, Syria, Amman, where the encounter with Beatrice took place, as well as Cairo and Alexandria. Touring is essential because there are so few opportunities here. But thankfully it's a universal medium.

For me one of the most important facets of contemporary dance is that it is contemporary. It's not an abstract statement or a fairy tale but deals in a more or less direct way with reality, especially the reality of everyday life. And that's true even when it assumes a more abstract form. It is a very important genre for our time, not least because the audience doesn't have too much difficulty relating to it. There is no particular method, no. Nor is there a consistent source of inspiration but I cannot work on something that does not have an urgency for me. I'm not necessarily very good at sticking movements together; that is simply something I'm frequently forced to do. Nor do I feel I want to tell a story but there has to be some kind of narrative or theme in my head. That is what a piece emerges out of. I like to use silence a lot. Sometimes the music is made first, and the movement proceeds on a parallel plain. For Taming I did all the choreography first and then Hassan Khan came in and made the music. So there are no hard and fast rules about it.

My plans? Other than performing Games in Cairo I want to arrange for a performance of Tempo Rament as well. This month I will travel to Brussels, to contribute Passages to an event called Africalia. And other than performances of these three pieces here and elsewhere, maybe, hopefully I will also start working on a new piece.