Dance Lab in Lebanon

This is what it's all about.

Our goal is clear: We want to develop a dance lab for eight Lebanese individuals from various social and professional backgrounds, that will take place during one month. The lab is going to result in an outdoor dance performance, which will be shown across Lebanon. In the following we will outline the project, and explain the background and motivation for this dance lab.

Who is we? Simea Cavelti, a Switzerland- based freelance dancer and choreographer, who has a close relation to Lebanon for many years and Beirut Physical Lab, an independent organization for dance and theatre, led by Bassam Abou Diab.

In 2022, I, Simea, was invited by Beirut Physical Lab to give a set of dance masterclasses in Lebanon and was very moved by the curiosity, sensitivity and eagerness of the participants. Bassam and I were inspired to continue the collaboration. How can we create something meaningful together? Could it be a beautiful project that adds value to people’s life? With those fundamental and simple questions in mind we initiated the planning of this project.

We, Bassam and Simea, have decided to co- lead this one-month intensive dance lab planned to take place in April/May 2023. It is going to offer a creative process to 8 eager, talented, and committed people who are between the age of 20 and 30 and are living in Lebanon. This project fits Beirut Physical Lab and Simea’s vision to create intercultural and sustainable relationships through artistic projects. To be and remain deeply and intensely curious about the world, to have a hungry heart, mind - and body determines what it is we create.

Why dance? Over the past few years we, Simea and Bassam, have both realized how resourceful and freeing dance can be in challenging times. Therefore we strongly believe that this project will have a fruitful and positive impact on the eight participants as well as the audience. Dance, at its heart, is a social and generous art form and therefore we believe that the project will resonate not only in the soul and the body of the participants but also in the ones of the spectator.

Dance has the potential to connect people to their heritage and can have strong cultural and spiritual components. These are present in Lebanon and serve as the starting point of this project. During this lab we are going to look at the body as a personal and cultural archive and explore it through a creative and collaborative process.

We aim to work together with a flat hierarchy and to listen and learn from each other in order to create a meaningful experience for everyone and an exciting dance performance. This outdoor performance will suit an inter-generational audience and will be presented in cultural places such as the Hammana Artist House and diverse villages and off- spaces across Lebanon.

To sum it up: This project lies at the intersection of a social and artistic vision and addresses the basic question: What is culture for? By focusing equally on the process and the performance we believe that this project is appropriate to the reality on the ground. It allows the participants to grow artistically and go through an individual and collective creative process. The performance engages with the local community and will hopefully resonate and inspire.

Thank you very much for your kind contribution to make this project happen.

Through your contribution you help fostering:

• To develop the skills and exchange of young Lebanese individuals and foster creative thinking in a place of crises;
• To reach out to a diverse inter-generational audience through an outdoor dance performance with a live accompanied sound artist;
• A creative process that works with a flat hierarchy structure to produce high quality and sustainable work, encouraging the independent ownership of responsibility;
• To develop relationships across diverse social classes and various backgrounds between the Lebanese project participants, local communities and institutions.

Your donation allows us:

• To cover the living costs of all project participants during the 1-month working period (food, transport, housing)
• To cover the salaries of all Lebanese professional artists involved in the project (sound artist, photographer and video maker)
• To cover partly Simea’s salary for the project managment