Dance is not for us

In the organizer's words:

DANCE IS NOT FOR US

by Omar Rajeh / Maqamat (Beirut / Lyon)

Omar Rajeh dances restlessly, erratically, impulsively, intensely. He fights his way through memories, longings, traumas ... What haunts him so painfully is the fall of Beirut, his home city, once a haven of love and joie de vivre. In the title of the play, he ironically states: "We have no right to dance." And knows exactly how to embody this: "We take our pain and go on tour with it. We dance with it." And his body conjures up the piercing feeling of helplessness and the maelstrom of chaos, anger and despair. There is the memory of the conflicts and the collapse of the economy. There are the sacrifices that politics and foreign rule demand of Lebanese society. In other words: Rajeh stays on the ground and does not play the master builder of the Lebanese dance landscape that he was until the theater he had created in Beirut was destroyed and the situation forced him to leave his homeland. He has lived in Lyon for five years and remembers his childhood doctor from a distance: was he ever interested in little Omar's personal sense of pain? And who takes care of Lebanon's suffering today? "I felt the need to create this piece," is written on the back wall at the end, when Rajeh turns his slogan DANCE IS NOT FOR US into a reminder of hospitality and warmth. But instead of nostalgia, the gesture becomes a symbol of hope. And hope, as we know, is green, like the cedar in the Lebanese flag.

[Omar Rajeh dances restlessly, impulsively, intensely. He fights his way through memories, longings and traumas ... He is painfully haunted by the fall of Beirut, his hometown, once a haven of love and joie de vivre. Nevertheless, the stage turns green at the end. Because, as we all know, hope is green, like the cedar in the Lebanese flag.